Chương 6
The call ended a minute later after Rebecca agreed to meet at a public place.
Graham did not like it.
He liked even less that he had agreed.
Claire placed Lily in the crib.
“Dad.”
He knew the tone.
Not anger.
Concern.
“What?”
“What are you getting yourself into?”
“I’m finding out why a baby was left on my porch.”
“That’s not all you’re doing.”
He looked at her.
“What does that mean?”
“It means you already care.”
He almost denied it.
The old reflex appeared.
Then disappeared.
“I don’t know what I feel.”
Claire nodded.
“That might be the most honest thing you’ve said in years.”
Graham looked away.
He wanted to be offended.
Instead, he found himself too tired.
The meeting with Rebecca took place that afternoon at a small diner twenty minutes from town.
Graham arrived early.
He always arrived early.
Claire came with him.
He did not ask her to.
She did not ask permission.
They sat in a booth near the window.
The waitress brought coffee.
Graham reached for the sugar.
Claire looked at him.
“What?”
“You don’t take sugar.”
He stopped.
“I used to.”
“No.”
She smiled faintly.
“You used to when Mom made it.”
The memory surprised him.
A tiny thing.
A spoonful of sugar.
A habit he had forgotten because it belonged to a person who was no longer there.
The waitress walked away.
Graham stared into the coffee.
“I forgot a lot.”
Claire looked out the window.
“I know.”
Before he could respond, the bell above the diner door rang.
A woman entered.
She looked exhausted.
Not old.
Just worn down by something that had taken too long.
Rebecca Holt spotted them immediately.
She walked over slowly.
“Mr. Vale?”
“Yes.”
Her eyes moved to Claire.
“Family?”
“My daughter.”
Rebecca nodded.
“Emily talked about wanting a family.”
Graham looked at her.
“You knew she wanted one?”
“She always wanted one.”
Rebecca sat down.
“She just didn’t believe she deserved one.”
The sentence bothered him.
Not because he disagreed.
Because he recognized it.
People rarely admitted what they believed about themselves.
They just built their lives around it.
“What happened to her?” Claire asked.
Rebecca folded her hands.
“That’s what I’m trying to figure out.”
“You think she’s in danger?”
“I think she was afraid.”
“Those aren’t the same thing.”
“No.”
Rebecca looked toward the window.
“But sometimes fear is the only warning people get.”
Graham leaned forward.
“Tell us everything.”
Rebecca opened her purse and removed a small photograph.
She placed it on the table.
It showed a young woman holding a newborn.
Emily.
The baby was tiny.
Lily.
Graham stared at the picture.
The same dark hair.
The same small face.
A different room.
A different life.
“She had Lily at home,” Rebecca said.
“She didn’t tell anyone until after.”
“Why?”
“Because she was afraid someone would take her.”
“Who?”
Rebecca looked down.
“I don’t know.”
Graham noticed the hesitation.
“You do know something.”
Rebecca looked up.
“I know Emily had been receiving money.”
“From who?”
“She wouldn’t say.”
“How much?”
“I don’t know.”
“That matters.”
“I know.”
Rebecca’s fingers tightened around her coffee cup.
“She told me it wasn’t a job.”
Graham frowned.
“What does that mean?”
“She said someone was paying her to keep quiet.”
The words changed the air around the table.
Claire looked at Graham.
Rebecca continued before either could speak.
“She never told me what she knew.”
“Why would someone pay her?”
“I don’t know.”
“Why would they care about a newborn?”
“I don’t know.”
Graham leaned back.
For the first time, he wished he knew less.
A simple problem would have been easier.
A lost child.
A scared mother.
A family trying to reconnect.
Instead, every answer opened another door.
Rebecca reached into her purse again.
This time she pulled out a folded piece of paper.
“I found this after Emily disappeared.”
Graham looked at it.
“You said the note was missing.”
“This one wasn’t the note.”
“What is it?”
Rebecca pushed it across the table.
“It was hidden inside a book.”
Graham unfolded it.
There was only one sentence written in Emily’s handwriting.
If Lily is with Graham Vale, don’t let anyone convince him to give her back.
Graham read it twice.
Then a third time.
Claire looked over his shoulder.
“Dad.”
He did not answer.
Because the sentence had done something worse than scare him.
It had made him understand.
Someone had expected him to be part of this.
And someone had expected him to fail.
And someone had expected him to fail.
Graham folded the paper carefully and placed it back on the table.
He did not tear it.
He did not throw it away.
Those would have been easier reactions.
They would have given his anger somewhere to go.
Instead, he sat there with the uncomfortable feeling that a stranger had reached into his life and touched something he had never even known was there.
“Who would write something like that?” Claire asked.
Rebecca looked at her.
“I don’t know.”
“But you think someone is trying to get the baby away from him?”
“I think someone wants Lily somewhere specific.”
Graham looked at the photograph again.
The young woman in the picture had a tired smile.
Not the kind people made when they wanted to look happy.
The kind people made when they were trying to convince themselves they still had reasons to be.
“What did Emily do?” Graham asked.
Rebecca looked down.
“She worked at a medical billing company.”
“Doing what?”
“Claims review.”
“Anything unusual about her job?”
“She said she saw things she wasn’t supposed to see.”
Claire leaned forward.
“What things?”
Rebecca shook her head.
“She never told me.”
“That doesn’t make sense,” Graham said.
“No.”
“You’re telling me your daughter was afraid, someone was paying her, she had a baby, she disappeared, and she didn’t tell you why?”
Rebecca’s eyes hardened slightly.
“She was twenty-eight, Mr. Vale.”
“That’s not an answer.”
May you like
“It’s the truth.”
Graham said nothing.
