Chapter 1 - THE WORD THAT STOPPED HIM
The hockey stick hit Grace before Nathan even understood what he was seeing.
Grace dropped to one knee, both arms wrapped around the four-year-old beneath her. Victoria stood over them in a white designer dress, gripping the wooden stick with both hands.
“Please,” Grace gasped. “Don’t hurt my child.”
Victoria’s face was cold. “Dead people keep secrets.”
She lifted the stick again.
“Nathan…” Grace cried.
He moved before he thought. He crossed the kitchen in three strides, caught the stick on the downswing, ripped it from Victoria’s hands, and hurled it across the room.
“What the hell are you doing?” he roared.
Victoria stumbled back. “She attacked me. I was defending myself.”
Grace laughed once, breathless and broken. “With a hockey stick?”
Lily peeked out from under Grace’s arm. Her cheeks were wet. Her little body shook so badly her teeth clicked.
Nathan crouched. “Hey. You’re safe now.”
Lily stared at him as if she had been waiting years for that exact sentence.
Then she whispered, “Daddy.”
“What did you call me?”
Grace lifted her head. Pain twisted her face, but there was something stronger behind it now.
“She’s your daughter, Nathan.”
Victoria went white.
Nathan looked from Grace to Lily. Same dark eyes. Same small dimple in the left cheek. Even the tiny crease between Lily’s brows when she was scared looked painfully familiar.
“No,” he said. “That’s impossible.”
Grace’s voice cracked. “Five years ago, your father made sure you believed that.”
Victoria backed toward the hallway.
And that was when Nathan saw the black folder sticking out of her purse.
Across the top was one line in red ink:
May you like
EMERGENCY CUSTODY PETITION — LILY MARIE HART.
And beneath it was his own signature.
