Chapter 4 - WHERE IS GRACE?
Emiliano ran.
He took the stairs two at a time, Mateo behind him. The family suite door stood open. Lena was in the middle of the room, white-faced.
“I went into the bathroom for maybe thirty seconds,” she said. “When I came out, she was gone.”
The window overlooked a second-floor garden roof.
Emiliano’s heart pounded so hard it hurt.
“Grace!”
No answer.
Security teams spread through the mansion and grounds. Emiliano checked closets, bathrooms, the library, Isabella’s old music room.
Nothing.
Then Ava appeared at the end of the hall.
Celeste’s daughter still wore her ivory junior-bridesmaid dress.
“She didn’t go outside,” Ava said.
Emiliano turned. “How do you know?”
Ava held up a small pink phone.
“I found this under Grace’s pillow.”
It wasn’t Grace’s phone.
A message glowed on the screen.
DADDY DOESN’T WANT YOU IN THE PICTURES. GO TO THE OLD CHAPEL AND WAIT.
Emiliano felt sick.
“Who sent that?”
Ava’s mouth trembled. “It says it came from you.”
Mateo checked the number. “Spoofed.”
They ran to the estate chapel.
The chapel door was locked from inside.
“Grace!” Emiliano slammed his palm against it. “Baby, it’s Daddy. Open the door.”
Silence.
Then a tiny voice: “How do I know?”
Emiliano pressed his forehead to the door. “When you were five, you hid my watch in the freezer because you said time needed to cool down.”
A pause.
The lock clicked.
Grace stood there crying.
He pulled her against him.
“I thought you didn’t want me anymore.”
“Never.”
Behind them, Ava began to cry too.
Mateo examined the pink phone.
“There’s an audio file.”
He pressed play.
Emiliano’s own voice filled the chapel.
“Grace, stay out of the pictures. I need you to go away for a while.”
Grace flinched.
Emiliano stared at the phone.
He had never said those words.
May you like
But someone had built them from recordings of his voice.
And according to the file metadata, the audio had been created on a laptop inside his own house.
