Chapter 7
Desperate, Vanessa entered his study one morning carrying a leather folder. “I found these in Grace’s room.”
Inside were an unmarked bottle of pills and fabricated messages between Grace and Daniel.
Vanessa’s eyes filled with carefully measured tears. “I think she used Lily to get close to you.”
Adrian studied the evidence. Then he nodded. “You did the right thing by bringing this to me.”
Vanessa left believing she had won.
Ten minutes later, Grace was washing dishes in the estate kitchen when she looked through the window toward the rose garden. Lily was on the swing, holding the larger stuffed rabbit Adrian had recently given her.
Three men in groundskeepers’ uniforms approached. One covered Lily’s mouth with a cloth. Another caught her as she went limp. The rabbit fell into the grass.
Grace dropped the plate in her hands. “Lily!”
She ran outside as a maintenance truck sped toward the rear gate. For one terrible second, she saw her daughter’s small shoe hanging near the passenger door.
Grace called Adrian. “They took her.” Her voice did not sound human. “They took my baby.”
Adrian stood so quickly that his chair struck the wall. “Who?”
“I don’t know.”
His private line rang before she could say more.
Vanessa’s voice came through. “Bring Noah’s investigation to the old Ward textile mill. Come alone. Publicly identify Grace as the person who poisoned you, dissolve our engagement without accusing me, and transfer temporary control of your businesses to Mason.”
Adrian’s grip tightened around the phone. “And Lily?”
“She will be returned.”
“You chose the wrong child.”
May you like
Vanessa laughed softly. “I chose the only thing that can make you obey.”
She was wrong. A week earlier, Adrian had stitched a small tracking device beneath the embroidered ear of Lily’s stuffed rabbit. He had done it after hearing about the “knife smell.”
