Chapter 5 - THE GIRL IN THE BACK SEAT
I don’t remember screaming.
I remember running.
Barely feeling the stone under my shoes.
Nathaniel passed me.
Security spread across the lawn.
Headlights moved beyond the hedge.
A black sedan accelerated toward the service road.
Nathaniel shouted into his phone.
“Lock the gates!”
The estate’s iron entrance began closing.
The sedan swerved.
For one second, I thought it would ram through.
Then it stopped.
Security surrounded it.
I reached the car seconds later.
“Lily!”
The rear door opened.
Lily tumbled out.
I dropped to my knees and caught her.
She was sobbing.
“Mommy!”
I held her so tightly she complained.
I didn’t care.
“I’m here.”
A security guard pulled the driver from the car.
It wasn’t Vanessa.
It wasn’t Richard.
It was a woman I recognized vaguely.
One of the temporary catering staff.
Her name was Bethany.
She looked terrified.
“I didn’t know!”
Nathaniel approached.
“Didn’t know what?”
“She told me the girl was sick. She said her mother wanted her taken home.”
“Who told you?”
Bethany looked toward the house.
“Ms. Lowell.”
Vanessa appeared on the terrace under guard.
“That is a lie.”
Bethany shook her head.
“You gave me five hundred dollars.”
“I’ve never spoken to you.”
“You texted me.”
Nathaniel’s security chief took Bethany’s phone.
A message showed instructions from a prepaid number.
Take Elena’s daughter through the terrace. Drive to the north gate. Her mother will meet you there.
Nathaniel looked at Vanessa.
She laughed bitterly.
“Anyone could have sent that.”
For once, she was right.
No proof linked the number to her.
I carried Lily inside.
Nathaniel crouched beside her.
“Lily.”
She buried her face in my shoulder.
He spoke softly.
“Did the woman hurt you?”
She shook her head.
“Did anyone else talk to you?”
A pause.
Then she nodded.
“Who?”
“The man from the office.”
Everyone froze.
I looked at her.
“What man?”
“The gray-hair man.”
Richard.
Nathaniel’s face changed.
“Where did you see him?”
“He was by the trees.”
My heart hammered.
“What did he say?”
Lily sniffed.
“He said tell Mommy to stop making trouble.”
Nathaniel stood.
Richard Vale had been on the property.
Within minutes, police searched the grounds.
They found footprints near the service road.
A discarded visitor badge.
And a Cross Meridian company vehicle abandoned two miles away.
By dawn, Richard Vale had disappeared.
So had nearly four million dollars from an internal corporate reserve account.
Nathaniel canceled the wedding publicly at 8:00 a.m.
Cross Meridian released a statement citing “serious personal and corporate concerns.”
By noon, financial reporters were outside the gates.
By three, Vanessa had moved out under police observation.
But no one arrested her.
There still wasn’t enough direct evidence.
Nathaniel insisted Lily and I remain in the guesthouse until security determined whether the threat was real.
I hated accepting.
But I hated the idea of someone knowing where Lily slept even more.
That evening, Nathaniel came to the guesthouse.
Lily was coloring at the kitchen table.
I opened the door but did not invite him in.
He looked exhausted.
“Elena.”
“Mr. Cross.”
He winced slightly.
“You can call me Nathaniel.”
“I’m still your employee.”
“That may be part of the problem.”
I stiffened.
“Am I fired?”
“No.”
He rubbed his forehead.
“I mean the power imbalance.”
I said nothing.
He looked past me at Lily.
“I owe you both an apology.”
“You didn’t grab her.”
“No. But it happened in my house, under a culture I was responsible for.”
That surprised me.
Most powerful people apologize by explaining why they aren’t really responsible.
Nathaniel didn’t.
“I built a company around service,” he continued. “And somehow I stopped noticing the people providing it.”
I looked at him.
“You noticed Vanessa.”
His expression tightened.
“Yes.”
“Not the same thing.”
“No.”
He reached into his coat.
“I also found this.”
A photograph.
Old.
Bent at one corner.
It showed me outside the employee entrance three years earlier.
Lily was in my arms.
I looked exhausted.
Nathaniel stood twenty feet away, watching us.
I stared at it.
“Why did Vanessa have this?”
“I don’t know.”
On the back, written in Vanessa’s handwriting, were the words:
HE ALREADY LOVES THEM.
My breath caught.
Nathaniel looked embarrassed.
“She was wrong.”
I met his eyes.
He added quietly, “At least about what I understood then.”
Something shifted between us.
Dangerous.
Unexpected.
I looked away.
Before either of us could speak, his phone rang.
Adrian.
Nathaniel answered.
“What?”
His expression changed.
“When?”
A pause.
“Send it to me.”
He ended the call.
“What happened?” I asked.
Nathaniel looked at me.
“Richard Vale sent Adrian an email.”
“What does it say?”
Nathaniel’s voice was barely audible.
“He says Vanessa isn’t the person behind this.”
My stomach dropped.
May you like
“He says the person running everything is already inside my house.”
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