Chapter 4 - The Blue Box
Nathan moved Grace and Lily into a guest suite on the opposite side of the house.
Grace refused at first.
“I can take Lily home.”
“Home where?” Nathan asked.
She looked away.
That answer told him enough.
Three months earlier, Grace had taken the maid job under her middle name because she had received another threat.
“What threat?”
She opened a blue wooden box from her suitcase.
Inside were photographs, printed emails, a hospital bracelet, and a stack of unopened envelopes.
Grace handed him the newest one.
The paper inside read:
YOU CAME TOO CLOSE. QUIT THE COLE HOUSE OR THE GIRL LOSES MORE THAN A PHOTO.
Nathan’s jaw tightened.
“Why didn’t you come to me?”
Grace laughed without humor. “The last time I trusted your name, I lost four years.”
He could not argue with that.
Lily sat on the bed coloring circles in a notebook.
Nathan watched her quietly.
“What does she know about me?”
“Only that you were someone I loved.”
“Did you tell her I was her father?”
“Not until six months ago.”
“What changed?”
“She asked why every picture of you was hidden.”
Nathan looked down.
Grace continued. “I told her the truth I knew. That you never knew she existed.”
He swallowed. “And you’re sure?”
Grace’s eyes flashed. “Yes.”
“I had to ask.”
“I know.”
That hurt both of them.
Nathan arranged an independent DNA test with a lab chosen by his attorney, not his company.
No Whitmore employees. No household staff.
Before bed, Lily approached him holding one crayon.
“Blue.”
Nathan took it.
“Thank you.”
She studied his face.
“You look like the picture.”
Nathan almost smiled.
Then Grace’s old phone buzzed.
A new message appeared from the unknown number.
May you like
DON’T TAKE THE TEST.
Attached was a photograph taken through the guest-room window ten seconds earlier.
