Chương 11
“I’ll drive.”
Grace did not argue.
Nathan looked at her.
“The text messages might sync somewhere.”
“My old tablet.”
“Where is it?”
“My apartment.”
“Do you know the password?”
“Yes.”
“Could Victoria?”
“No.”
Nathan hesitated.
“What about access to the phone itself?”
“Face ID and a code.”
“Does she know the code?”
“No.”
Grace looked at him.
“Why?”
“If she took it, she may not be able to open it.”
“That’s good.”
“Unless it was already unlocked.”
Grace remembered the kitchen.
Her bag on the island.
The water glass.
Victoria asking whether Lily needed juice.
Grace had gone down the hall after Lily asked for the bathroom.
Her bag had been left behind.
“She had time.”
Nathan looked at her.
“How much?”
“Maybe three minutes.”
His expression darkened.
Grace stood.
“We should go.”
Nathan remained seated.
“There’s something I need to tell you before we do.”
Grace immediately disliked his tone.
“What?”
He pulled his phone from his pocket.
“When you were with the doctor, Victoria called me.”
Grace stared at him.
“You answered?”
“Yes.”
“What did she say?”
Nathan unlocked the phone and held it loosely between both hands.
“She said you attacked her first.”
Grace laughed in disbelief.
“With what?”
“She claims you shoved her.”
“I didn’t.”
“I believe you.”
Grace’s anger sharpened.
“Don’t believe me because you saw the ending.”
“I don’t.”
“Then why?”
Nathan looked directly at her.
“Because she changed her story three times in six minutes.”
Grace went still.
Nathan continued.
“First you shoved her.”
He glanced at the phone.
“Then you grabbed the hockey stick.”
Grace’s mouth tightened.
“Then?”
“Then she said she only picked it up because you threatened to take Lily and disappear.”
Grace stared.
“That doesn’t even make sense.”
“I know.”
“What did you say?”
“That she should stop talking until she had an attorney.”
Grace blinked.
“That was generous.”
Nathan’s expression was grim.
“It wasn’t for her.”
He looked down at the phone.
“I didn’t want her creating ten more versions before the police heard the first three.”
Grace studied him.
“Anything else?”
Nathan hesitated.
“Yes.”
The air seemed to tighten around them.
“She said if you went to the police, she would tell them why you really kept Lily secret.”
Grace’s heartbeat changed.
Nathan watched her face.
“She said there was something you never told me.”
Grace looked away.
For the first time since leaving the mansion, Victoria’s threat did not feel empty.
Nathan’s voice dropped.
“Is there?”
Grace looked at the narrow strip of lawn between the porch and the sidewalk.
For several seconds, she listened to the sprinkler clicking two houses down.
Nathan did not repeat the question.
That made it harder.
“Yes.”
His face changed almost imperceptibly.
Grace folded her mother’s phone between both hands.
“There is something I never told you.”
Nathan looked away first.
“All right.”
“That doesn’t mean Victoria knows it.”
“She sounded very sure.”
“Victoria sounds sure when she orders sparkling water.”
“That is not helpful.”
“I’m not trying to be helpful.”
Nathan rubbed both palms over his knees.
Grace recognized the movement.
He used to do it before difficult meetings, though he had always denied being nervous.
“What is it?”
Grace stood.
“I’m not having this conversation on my mother’s porch.”
Nathan rose immediately.
“Where?”
“My apartment.”
“Why there?”
“Because there’s something I need to show you.”
His eyes narrowed.
“What?”
Grace looked at him.
“If I explain it badly, you’ll think I’m lying.”
“That’s encouraging.”
“It isn’t meant to be.”
The front door opened behind them.
Mrs. Lin stood with one hand on the knob.
“Lily wants to know whether Nathan is leaving.”
Nathan looked startled.
Grace sighed.
“For an hour.”
Her mother’s eyes moved between them.
“I can keep her.”
“I know.”
Mrs. Lin looked at Nathan.
“And you are bringing Grace back.”
“Yes.”
Grace frowned.
“I am standing right here.”
Her mother ignored her.
Nathan almost smiled.
“Yes, Mrs. Lin.”
Lily appeared behind her grandmother with cookie crumbs on her dress.
“Daddy Nathan.”
Nathan’s expression softened before he could stop it.
“Hey.”
“You leaving?”
“For a little while.”
“With Mommy?”
“Yes.”
Lily thought about this.
“Bring fries.”
Grace closed her eyes.
“You just had cookies.”
“Fries are not cookies.”
Nathan nodded solemnly.
“That is technically correct.”
Grace pointed at him.
“Do not encourage her.”
“I am learning.”
Lily grinned.
The sight of it tightened something in Grace’s chest.
Nathan saw it too.
For one fragile second, everyone stood inside a moment that could have belonged to an ordinary family.
Then Grace’s shoulder throbbed.
Reality returned.
“We’ll be back.”
Mrs. Lin touched Grace’s good arm.
“Call if anything changes.”
Grace nodded.
Nathan followed her to the car.
Neither spoke until they were moving again.
Grace sat in the front passenger seat this time.
The empty child seat in the back made the silence more obvious.
Nathan glanced at her.
“You own a car seat for my daughter.”
Grace turned toward the window.
“Yes.”
“That sentence sounds stupid out loud.”
“Most true things do today.”
He drove two blocks.
“What did Victoria say exactly?”
Grace looked over.
“You said she threatened to tell the police.”
“She said, ‘Ask Grace why she was so desperate to keep that child from you.’”
Grace’s stomach tightened.
“Anything else?”
“She said you were afraid I would find out what happened at the hospital.”
Grace went very still.
Nathan noticed.
“What happened at the hospital?”
Grace looked forward.
“Drive.”
His hands tightened around the wheel.
“Grace.”
“Drive.”
He obeyed.
Her apartment was twenty minutes away in a neighborhood of older brick buildings, coffee shops, laundromats, and narrow trees planted too close to the curb.
Nathan had never been there.
He slowed in front of the building and looked up.
“You’ve lived here four years?”
“Three and a half.”
“Where before?”
“With my mother.”
He parked.
Grace got out before he could ask more.
The lobby smelled faintly of floor cleaner and someone’s dinner.
May you like
A package sat crooked beneath the mailboxes.
Nathan followed her upstairs.
