Chapter 3 - FIVE YEARS EARLIER
Nathan locked Victoria out of the kitchen and called security.
She screamed through the door until two guards escorted her from the property.
“You’re making the biggest mistake of your life!” she shouted.
“No,” Nathan said. “I think I already made it.”
Grace refused an ambulance until Lily stopped crying. Nathan finally carried both of them to the car and drove to a private urgent care clinic himself.
In the exam room, a doctor confirmed Grace had a deep shoulder bruise and a mild concussion.
Nathan stood by the window, hands clenched.
“Tell me everything.”
Grace looked at Lily asleep under a blanket.
“Your father came to my apartment five years ago. He knew I was pregnant before I had told you.”
“How?”
“I don’t know. He showed me medical paperwork from my clinic.”
Nathan’s stomach turned.
“He said you were about to inherit voting control of Cole Meridian. If I stayed, the child could complicate the trust. He offered me money first.”
“You took it?”
Grace’s eyes flashed. “No.”
Nathan immediately regretted the question.
“So he changed tactics,” she continued. “He showed me a police report accusing me of stealing from one of your subsidiaries. My signature was on bank transfers I had never seen.”
“He said if I fought him, I’d be arrested. If I told you about the baby, he would bury me in court and make sure I never saw my child again.”
“Why didn’t you come to me?”
“I tried.”
Grace reached into her purse and pulled out an old phone, cracked down the middle.
“I called you fourteen times that night. Every call went to voicemail. The next morning your number was disconnected.”
Nathan frowned. “I never changed my number.”
Grace looked at him.
For the first time, they both understood.
Someone else had controlled the line.
Grace touched Lily’s hair.
“I left Phoenix. I changed my name. I worked wherever I could. Then three months ago, I saw your engagement announcement.”
“So you applied to work in my house.”
“I needed to know if your father’s people were still watching me.”
“And were they?”
Grace nodded.
“Two weeks after I started, I found a tracker under my car.”
She pulled a small black device from her bag.
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On the back was a silver inventory sticker.
COLE MERIDIAN SECURITY.
