Chương 10
“I need you to tell Mr. Mercer to leave the property.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“And if he refuses?”
“We’ll handle it.”
I looked through the peephole even though the hallway was empty.
My heart was beating too fast.
Emma came beside me.
“Is he mad?”
“I don’t know.”
She whispered, “I don’t want him coming up here.”
“He won’t.”
For the first time since the cake hit the floor, I heard fear in my own daughter’s voice when she spoke about her father.
That changed something in me more permanent than anger.
I called Natalie.
She answered immediately.
“He found the hotel.”
“How?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did you share your location with him?”
“No.”
“Do the girls?”
I looked at Emma.
“Maybe.”
She had a tablet.
Lily had an old phone we used only for games and emergencies.
Both were connected to our family account.
Natalie said, “Check location sharing now.”
I opened the settings on my phone.
There it was.
Family location services.
Mark could see my device.
My stomach dropped.
I had forgotten we had enabled it years earlier for road trips and emergencies.
I switched off sharing.
Then I checked Emma’s.
Then Lily’s.
All three devices had been visible.
Mystery solved.
Not by hacking.
Not by surveillance.
By a setting I had forgotten existed.
The discovery embarrassed me.
Natalie did not let me dwell on it.
“Is he still there?”
“I don’t know.”
The room phone rang.
I answered.
“Mrs. Mercer?”
“Yes.”
“This is the front desk.”
“We asked the gentleman to leave.”
“Did he?”
A pause.
“He is refusing.”
My mouth went dry.
The clerk continued.
“We’ve contacted security.”
Emma stood three feet away watching my face.
I said, “Thank you.”
Then I hung up.
My phone buzzed again.
Mark.
You can’t keep my daughters from me.
I did not answer.
Another message came.
I only want five minutes.
Then another.
You’re turning this into something it isn’t.
I saved every one.
Downstairs, somewhere four floors beneath us, a door slammed.
Emma flinched.
I reached for her hand.
For the first time, she grabbed mine before I could take hers.
The room phone rang again before either of us moved.
Emma tightened her fingers around mine.
I answered with my free hand.
“Mrs. Mercer?”
“Yes.”
“This is security.”
The man’s voice was low and professional.
“Your husband has left the lobby.”
I closed my eyes.
“Thank you.”
“He was upset, but he left voluntarily once we explained that he could not remain on the property after being asked to go.”
“Did he say where he was going?”
“No, ma’am.”
“Did he try to come upstairs?”
“No.”
I let out a breath I had not realized I was holding.
The security officer paused.
“If he returns tonight, call the front desk immediately.”
When I hung up, Emma was still watching me.
“He left?”
“Yes.”
She nodded, but she did not release my hand.
Lily stirred in the other bed and rolled onto her stomach.
Emma lowered her voice.
“Is Dad dangerous?”
The question hit me harder than any accusation Mark had sent all weekend.
“No.”
She searched my face.
I hated that I could not give her the kind of certainty children deserve.
“He’s angry and scared, and he made a bad choice coming here after I told him I needed space.”
“That wasn’t what I asked.”
I swallowed.
“I don’t think your dad wants to hurt us.”
Emma looked toward the door.
“But you locked everything.”
“Yes.”
“Because you’re scared.”
“I’m being careful.”
“That means scared.”
I sat beside her.
“I’m scared of things getting more out of control.”
She absorbed that slowly.
Then she asked, “Did Grandma come with him?”
“No.”
“Okay.”
Her shoulders dropped by half an inch.
That tiny movement told me more than a speech could have.
At ten twenty, Mark sent another text.
I left.
I saved it.
Then another came.
I’m not trying to scare anyone.
I saved that too.
Five minutes passed.
Then he wrote, I just wanted to see my girls.
I stared at the screen.
The sentence would have been easier to sympathize with if he had not spent the evening asking Emma for our location and then tracked us through the family account.
I typed, They are safe.
Natalie had not told me never to respond at all.
Still, I hesitated before sending it.
When the message went through, Mark replied almost immediately.
Safe from what?
I did not answer.
That question had no answer that would help either of us tonight.
I turned off the bedside lamp.
Emma stayed awake beside me for another twenty minutes.
I could tell by the rhythm of her breathing.
Eventually, her grip loosened around my fingers.
I lay there staring into the dark.
My mind kept circling the same facts.
The file box.
The lease.
The hotel.
The location settings.
Every one of those things could be explained without turning Mark into someone I did not recognize.
That was the problem.
I still recognized him.
He had always panicked when he felt control slipping away.
He had always gone to Diane when he did not know what to do.
He had always treated access to me as something marriage automatically guaranteed.
Nothing he had done required a new personality.
Only higher stakes.
That realization was less comforting than I expected.
I woke at six fourteen to the sound of my phone vibrating against the nightstand.
Natalie.
I sat up carefully so I would not wake the girls.
“Hello?”
“I have an update.”
Her voice was already fully awake.
“What happened?”
“Mark retained counsel.”
I stood and walked toward the bathroom.
“Already?”
“Yes.”
“Who?”
“A local family-law attorney named Steven Keller.”
I knew the name vaguely.
Mark’s company had used Keller’s firm for employment contracts years earlier.
“Is that bad?”
“It means he’s getting advice.”
“That’s probably good, right?”
“In some ways.”
Natalie paused.
“He also contacted the property management company this morning.”
My stomach tightened.
May you like
“What did he say?”
“He asked them to confirm his company’s renewal rights under the Palmer lease.”
