Chapter 5 - SAMUEL PRICE
“I knew this day would come.”
Nathan gripped the phone.
“My father paid you?”
“Your father paid everybody.”
“To do what?”
“Make Miss Bennett disappear.”
Five years earlier, Grace called the Cole estate asking for Nathan.
Nathan was in London negotiating the first Mercer partnership.
His father intercepted every call.
Then Grace came to the house.
“He told me to drive her home.”
“What happened?”
“Your father came with us.”
“He threatened her?”
“He had papers.”
“What papers?”
“Custody documents. Medical records. A police complaint.”
Grace had no criminal record.
“Your father said if she contacted you, he’d say she was unstable. Said he had doctors and lawyers who would back him.”
“Why?”
“Because the Mercer deal required you to marry Victoria.”
Nathan’s stomach dropped.
“No.”
“The old men wanted blood tied to money.”
“My father never told me who to marry.”
“He didn’t have to. He arranged every room you walked into.”
Nathan thought of charity events.
Vacations where Victoria somehow appeared.
“Grace refused the money.”
“What money?”
“Two million.”
“She refused?”
“Every dollar.”
“Then why did she disappear?”
“Because your father showed her a photograph.”
“What photograph?”
“Her mother leaving work.”
Grace’s mother had died four years ago.
Samuel whispered, “He said accidents happen to people who don’t understand warnings.”
Then Samuel added, “Victoria was in the car.”
“What?”
“She heard everything.”
Nathan’s pulse hammered.
“She knew Grace was carrying your child.”
The visiting-room door opened behind Nathan.
“We have a problem.”
“What?”
“Grace is missing from the hospital.”
“Where’s Lily?”
“With social services.”
“Who signed Grace out?”
Ellis’s face hardened.
“Nobody.”
She slid a still image under the glass.
Hospital security footage.
Grace in a wheelchair.
A nurse pushing her toward a service elevator.
The nurse’s face was hidden.
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But the bracelet on her wrist was unmistakable.
Victoria’s family crest.
