Chapter 5 - WHAT MAYA REMEMBERED
Maya did not sleep much that night.
Neither did I.
At dawn, she sat at my father's kitchen island wearing one of his old college sweatshirts like a dress.
"Mommy?"
"Yeah?"
"Are we staying here?"
"For now."
"Is Daddy mad?"
I put down my coffee.
"Daddy is responsible for his feelings."
She thought about that.
Then whispered, "Genevieve said I would have a new mommy after the party."
My body went cold.
"What party?"
"The flower-girl party."
The gala.
Genevieve and Julian had planned to announce their engagement before the divorce was even final.
Maya continued.
"Grandma said you were going somewhere to get better."
I forced my voice steady.
"Did she say where?"
"A hospital."
Harrison stopped in the doorway.
I looked at him.
"They were going to have me committed."
He did not answer.
He did not need to.
Rachel arrived with a private investigator named Marcus Hale.
He had found payments from Victoria's foundation to Dr. Reeve, a custody consultant, and a security company that had surveilled me for four months.
Photographs showed me grocery shopping, taking Maya to preschool, sitting alone in parks.
Normal life, collected like evidence.
Then Marcus placed one photograph on the counter.
Julian meeting Dr. Reeve in a private dining room.
Genevieve was with them.
So was someone I knew from Blackwood Holdings.
My father's general counsel, Thomas Vale.
Gideon's expression changed for the first time.
"Thomas has worked for me thirty years."
I looked at him.
"Then somebody on our side was helping them."
Maya tugged my sleeve.
"Mommy?"
I crouched.
"What is it?"
She whispered, "The man from Grandpa's office came to our house before."
"Which man?"
She pointed at Thomas's picture.
"He gave Daddy papers."
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Then she added one sentence that made my father sit down.
"Daddy said, 'Once she signs, the Blackwoods can't take the company back.'"
