Chapter 3 - The Hockey Stick
Victoria laughed too quickly.
“You cannot seriously be accusing me of threatening her four years ago.”
Grace looked at Nathan. “I’m accusing her of what happened today.”
Nathan picked up the hockey stick.
“Tell me.”
Grace’s voice stayed steady. “Victoria found Lily in the kitchen. Lily had the photograph. Victoria tried to take it. Lily ran to me. Victoria raised the stick.”
“I never touched the child,” Victoria snapped.
“No,” Grace said. “You hit me when I got between you.”
Nathan looked at the swelling on Grace’s shoulder.
Victoria’s face tightened. “She grabbed me first.”
Lily whispered, “She said Mommy was trash.”
Victoria went pale.
Nathan crouched several feet from Lily.
“Did she say that?”
Lily nodded.
“And did she try to hit you?”
The little girl’s lower lip trembled.
Grace started to speak, but Nathan lifted a hand.
“Let her answer if she wants.”
Lily stared at him for a long moment.
Then she pointed at the hockey stick.
“She said bad girls get one warning.”
Nathan stood.
“Victoria, get out.”
Her mouth fell open. “You’re throwing me out because a four-year-old repeated something?”
“I’m removing you because my fiancée is standing beside a bruised woman and a terrified child while her father remotely disables my cameras.”
Victoria’s expression changed.
“You’ll regret humiliating me.”
Nathan stepped closer. “Do not threaten me in my own house.”
Daniel arrived with two security officers.
Victoria grabbed her purse.
At the doorway, she turned to Grace.
“You think this ends with a DNA test?”
Grace froze.
Nathan heard it.
“You already know there will be a DNA test.”
Victoria said nothing.
Daniel escorted her out.
Five minutes later, the security system came back online.
The kitchen footage was gone.
May you like
But Daniel found something worse.
The deletion command had been scheduled three hours before Victoria ever entered the kitchen.
