Chapter 7 - Four Years Ago
Grace had never seen Owen Reese’s name.
But she remembered his face.
He was the man who sat in a black sedan across from her mother’s house after the threatening messages began.
He followed Grace to the bus station when she left New York.
“He didn’t speak to me,” she said. “He didn’t have to.”
Nathan felt sick.
“Where did you go?”
“Ohio. My aunt had a small apartment over her bakery.”
“And Lily was born there?”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you ever come back?”
Grace looked at him for a long time.
“Because three weeks after Lily was born, I received a package.”
She opened the blue box and removed a printed photograph.
Nathan was standing outside a Manhattan restaurant beside Victoria.
The date stamped on the back was four years ago.
Nathan frowned.
“I barely knew her then.”
Grace handed him a note.
HE MOVED ON BEFORE YOUR CHILD WAS BORN. DO THE SAME.
Nathan sat down.
He remembered the restaurant. A Whitmore charity dinner. Victoria had been seated beside him by Charles.
A coincidence at the time.
Now nothing felt accidental.
Daniel called with news.
Owen Reese had been arrested for impersonating an officer and evidence theft.
He wanted a lawyer.
But his vehicle contained an old encrypted phone.
Cyber investigators recovered one text thread from four years earlier.
CHARLES: Make sure Bennett leaves the city.
OWEN: And Cole?
CHARLES: He will be handled separately.
Nathan read the words twice.
“What does handled separately mean?”
Nobody knew.
Then Grace said, “I might.”
She looked frightened.
“Three days after I disappeared, you were hospitalized.”
Nathan’s breath stopped.
A car crash.
A concussion.
Two missing days of memory.
May you like
He had always believed he fell asleep at the wheel.
Grace whispered, “What if you didn’t?”
