Chương 2
Daniel ignored her.
He looked at Emily instead.
“This is your home.”
She stared at him.
His voice remained low.
“It is her home. I put the deed in Emily’s name yesterday.”
Margaret’s face emptied.
The change was so abrupt Emily almost missed it.
For twenty years, Daniel had told stories about his mother’s composure as though it were a natural resource. Margaret had handled a hotel fire in Vail without raising her voice. She had informed three hundred employees of Daniel’s father’s death four hours after leaving the hospital. She could sit through an investor threatening litigation and afterward complain only that the coffee had been burned.
Now she simply stared.
“You did what?”
Daniel did not repeat himself.
Emily shifted the baby higher against her chest.
“Daniel.”
He looked back at her.
“You put the deed in my name?”
“Yes.”
“Yesterday?”
“Yes.”
Margaret turned on him.
“You chose her over your own mother?”
Daniel’s jaw moved once.
“I chose my wife and my son.”
The elevator doors opened.
A uniformed police officer came through the entry hall, followed by another officer and Marcus Delaney, the lodge’s overnight security director.
The lead officer was broad-shouldered, around forty, with melting snow on the sleeves of his winter uniform. His body camera showed a small red status light. A radio hissed softly near his shoulder.
His gaze moved around the room before settling on Margaret.
“Margaret Hale, step away from the family. We have the security footage.”
The statement did not make sense to Emily immediately.
Security footage.
Of what?
The suitcase?
The officer glanced toward Daniel.
“Sir, stay where you are.”
Daniel stopped.
The second officer moved to the side, giving the room a wider angle.
Margaret slowly turned.
“You brought police into my son’s home?”
Emily almost corrected her.
My home, apparently.
The thought made her feel sick.
The lead officer kept his voice even.
“Ma’am, step away from them.”
“I haven’t touched anyone.”
Marcus looked uncomfortable.
He was in his late fifties and had worked for Hale Alpine properties long before Emily met Daniel. Margaret had once told Emily that Marcus knew how to handle wealthy guests because he understood when not to notice things.
Tonight he seemed determined to notice everything.
“Mrs. Hale,” he said, “please do what the officer is asking.”
Margaret’s eyes sharpened.
“Don’t you dare.”
Marcus looked at the floor.
That was the first thing that frightened Emily more than Margaret’s anger.
Marcus was afraid of her.
Not socially uncomfortable.
Afraid.
The officer gestured gently.
“Ma’am.”
Margaret stepped away from the sofa.
The baby stirred again, making a tiny sucking movement in his sleep.
Emily kissed the top of his blanket without thinking.
Daniel crouched beside the sofa rather than blocking her view.
“Can I?”
She hesitated.
His hand stayed in the air.
Not reaching.
Waiting.
Emily nodded.
He put one arm behind her shoulders, carefully avoiding the baby.
She leaned into him because her knees had begun shaking.
Across the room, Margaret watched.
For a moment, the cold fury left her face.
Something else appeared there.
Disbelief.
Not that police had come.
Not even that Daniel had defied her.
It was the expression of a woman discovering that a system she had relied on for years had stopped responding to her commands.
“What footage?” she asked.
Marcus swallowed.
“The hallway, the service vestibule and the foyer.”
Margaret looked at him.
“This room is private.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“So you have nothing from this room.”
The lead officer’s face did not change.
“We have enough to need to speak to everyone separately.”
Margaret glanced at Daniel.
“Tell them to leave.”
“No.”
“Daniel.”
“No.”
Emily heard the single word and waited for the relief she thought it should bring.
Instead she felt tired.
So tired she wanted the room empty.
She wanted Margaret gone, the officers gone, Marcus gone, the fireplace turned off, the wind turned off, the baby asleep for three consecutive hours, and Daniel sitting beside her without any more surprises involving deeds or police or his mother.
The officer looked at Emily.
“Ma’am, are you injured?”
“I don’t know.”
Daniel turned.
“Emily.”
“I mean—no. I don’t think so.”
The officer glanced at her feet, then the way she was standing.
“Did anyone strike or shove you?”
Emily opened her mouth.
Margaret spoke first.
“No.”
The second officer said, “Ma’am, I need you to let her answer.”
Margaret lifted both hands.
“Apparently I’m not allowed to speak in my own family now.”
Emily looked at the suitcase.
An image came back to her.
Not the kick.
Earlier.
Margaret reaching past her in the entry hall when Emily tried to close the door.
Emily had put out one arm.
Margaret had pushed it down.
Not hard.
Then, when Emily said she was going to call Daniel, Margaret had caught her wrist and said, Please don’t embarrass yourself.
Emily had pulled free.
Was that why her wrist hurt?
She shifted the baby into her left arm and looked.
Four faint reddish marks crossed the inside of her right wrist.
Daniel saw them.
His breathing changed.
He did not say anything.
That restraint mattered too.
“Yes,” Emily said.
The lead officer waited.
“She grabbed my wrist.”
Margaret stared at her.
“I steadied you.”
“No.”
“You nearly dropped the baby.”
Emily’s head snapped up.
“No, I didn’t.”
“I was trying to protect him.”
“No.”
The baby twitched at the sudden sharpness in Emily’s voice.
She lowered it immediately.
“No,” she repeated. “You weren’t.”
Daniel’s arm tightened behind her.
Margaret looked at him.
“Ask her how much she’s slept.”
Emily felt heat rise into her face.
There it was.
The thing Margaret had been building toward all evening.
The thing that made every exhausted new mother easy to doubt.
“She told me yesterday she heard the baby crying while he was in Daniel’s arms. She walked into an empty nursery looking for him. Does that sound well to you?”
Daniel looked at Emily.
May you like
She pulled away from him.
His arm dropped immediately.
