Chapter 2 - The Woman Who Made Grace Disappear
Nathan opened the door before the police could knock again.
Two uniformed officers stood beside a detective in a dark blue coat.
Behind them stood Victoria.
Nathan almost laughed.
Of course she was there.
She had changed clothes.
The white designer dress was gone.
Now she wore black slacks, a cream cashmere sweater, and a camel coat.
Her hair was pulled into a loose ponytail.
No blood.
No hockey stick.
No sign that three hours earlier she had been standing over Grace and Lily whispering about dead people.
She looked exactly like what wealthy people always tried to become after committing something ugly.
Concerned.
Fragile.
Respectable.
“Nathan,” Victoria said softly.
He stepped into the hallway and closed the door behind him.
“You shouldn’t have come here.”
Her eyes glistened.
“I’m worried about you.”
He stared at her.
“You hit Grace with a hockey stick.”
One officer immediately looked at Victoria.
She blinked.
“Nathan, she attacked me.”
Nathan almost admired the speed.
“She was on the floor.”
“She came at me.”
“With what?”
Victoria hesitated.
“That woman is dangerous.”
The detective stepped forward.
“Mr. Cole?”
“Yes.”
“Detective Alicia Morgan.”
She held up her badge.
“We need to speak with Ms. Bennett.”
“You can speak to her. But she’s injured, her child is sleeping, and her attorney is on the way.”
Victoria’s expression tightened.
Detective Morgan looked toward her.
“Ms. Vale, you should wait downstairs.”
“I’m Nathan’s fiancée.”
“Not relevant.”
Victoria’s jaw shifted.
Nathan noticed.
The mask slipped only for a second.
Morgan continued.
“We’ll contact you separately regarding the assault allegation.”
Victoria looked at Nathan.
“You told them?”
“I told the emergency-room doctor.”
“You’re destroying everything.”
There it was.
Not:
I’m sorry.
Not:
Is Grace okay?
Not:
I frightened Lily.
Everything.
The company.
The wedding.
The merger.
The empire.
Nathan leaned closer.
“You tried to hit a four-year-old.”
Victoria whispered, “You have no idea what that child represents.”
Nathan felt something inside him become still.
“Yes,” he said. “I do.”
Fear flashed across her face.
Only once.
Then she recovered.
“Nathan—”
“Leave.”
“Nathan, listen to me.”
“Leave.”
She looked toward the detective.
Then toward the closed penthouse door.
Finally she walked toward the elevator.
As the doors closed, her eyes stayed locked on Nathan.
No tears now.
No pleading.
Only calculation.
Nathan had slept beside that woman.
Proposed to her.
Trusted her.
He suddenly wondered whether he had ever known a single person in his family.
Detective Morgan entered.
Grace remained seated with Lily.
Daniel stood beside her.
For the next thirty minutes, Morgan asked careful questions.
Had Grace purchased airline tickets?
No.
Did she possess a passport for Lily?
Yes.
Where was it?
Grace frowned.
“In my apartment.”
“When did you last see it?”
“Maybe two months ago.”
Morgan took notes.
“Have you threatened to take Lily outside the country?”
“No.”
“Did Mr. Cole recently contact you regarding custody?”
Grace looked at Nathan.
“No.”
Nathan interrupted.
“I discovered Lily existed tonight.”
Morgan’s pen stopped.
“You didn’t file the petition?”
“No.”
“You’re saying the document bearing your signature is fraudulent?”
“Yes.”
Daniel placed the trust letter beside him.
“We will provide handwriting, digital-account, and device evidence.”
Morgan studied Nathan.
“You understand this is a serious allegation.”
“So is forging a custody petition.”
“Yes.”
“I want the source traced.”
“We will investigate.”
Nathan’s voice hardened.
“Immediately.”
Morgan’s expression changed slightly.
Nathan recognized it.
People were accustomed to his money becoming pressure.
He hated that part of himself tonight.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “That sounded like an order.”
“It did.”
“My daughter is four. Someone just created fake legal evidence to take her from her mother.”
Morgan looked toward Lily.
Her expression softened.
“I understand.”
“No,” Grace whispered.
Everyone turned.
Grace’s face had gone pale.
“They’re doing exactly what they promised.”
Nathan sat beside her.
“Tell us.”
Grace’s eyes moved toward Detective Morgan.
“Five years ago, Nathan’s father summoned me to his office.”
Nathan felt his jaw tighten.
“He knew?”
“He knew I was pregnant.”
Grace looked at Nathan.
“I was eleven weeks.”
He remembered that period.
Grace had begun acting distant.
Nervous.
He assumed she was losing interest.
“I was going to tell you that night,” she said.
“What happened?”
“Your father called first.”
Grace looked down.
“He had medical records.”
The illegal prenatal test.
“He told me you were engaged.”
Nathan frowned.
“I wasn’t.”
“I know that now.”
“Who did he say?”
“Victoria.”
Nathan looked away.
Five years ago, he barely knew Victoria.
Their families attended the same events.
Nothing more.
“Then he showed me photographs of you with her.”
“Probably charity events.”
“I didn’t know.”
Grace swallowed.
“He said your marriage had been arranged in everything but name.”
Nathan felt sick.
“That was a lie.”
“It didn’t matter.”
Her eyes filled.
“Because then he told me what would happen if I stayed.”
Grace’s voice became quiet.
“He said Cole Industries employed some of the best attorneys in the country. He said they would claim I intentionally became pregnant to extort you.”
Nathan clenched his fists.
“He said they would investigate my mother.”
Grace looked at Detective Morgan.
“My mother was undocumented when she first came to the United States. She later obtained legal status. But Edward said he could reopen everything.”
“Could he?”
“I didn’t know.”
Fear didn’t require legal accuracy.
Only credibility.
Grace continued.
“He said he would prove I was unstable.”
Nathan thought of the fake petition downstairs.
Grace gave a bitter laugh.
“He even showed me the psychiatrist they planned to use.”
Daniel frowned.
“A real physician?”
Grace nodded.
“Dr. Samuel Ridge.”
Daniel’s face changed.
Nathan noticed.
“You know him.”
Daniel hesitated.
“He consulted for the Cole Foundation.”
Grace’s eyes widened.
“Of course he did.”
Detective Morgan wrote down the name.
“What happened next?”
Grace looked toward Lily.
“I left.”
Nathan felt a blade twisting slowly inside his chest.
“You didn’t trust me.”
Grace looked directly at him.
“I was twenty-six years old, pregnant, and sitting across from one of the most powerful men in New York while he described exactly how he would take my child.”
Nathan had no answer.
“He showed me court filings he said were already drafted.”
Grace’s mouth trembled.
“He had photographs of my apartment.”
Nathan went cold.
“He had photographs of my mother’s house.”
She continued.
“He knew my bank balance.”
A tear slid down her face.
“He knew the name I had picked for a baby girl.”
Nathan’s throat closed.
“Lily?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“I still don’t know.”
Edward had turned omniscience into a weapon.
Grace looked down.
“Then Eleanor Vale entered the room.”
Nathan closed his eyes.
Victoria’s mother.
“She was there?”
“She sat beside your father.”
Grace’s voice changed.
Less afraid now.
Angrier.
“She told me women like me confuse attention with love.”
Nathan’s hands curled into fists.
“She said I had two choices.”
“What choices?”
“Take two million dollars and disappear willingly.”
Nathan stared.
“Or?”
“They would destroy me.”
Silence.
Detective Morgan stopped writing.
Grace continued.
“I said no.”
Nathan looked at her.
“Of course you did.”
She almost smiled.
“I threw the check at Eleanor.”
For the first time that night, Nathan felt something close to pride.
Then Grace’s expression darkened.
“The next morning I was fired.”
“From the foundation?”
“Yes.”
“Then my landlord told me the building had been sold and my lease wouldn’t be renewed.”
Nathan’s stomach turned.
“Cole property?”
“Shell company. I found out later.”
Then came more.
Her mother lost her job.
Grace’s health insurance was canceled.
Anonymous complaints were filed alleging she was emotionally unstable.
A social worker appeared after Lily’s birth responding to a fabricated report of neglect.
Nathan’s face became colder with every sentence.
Grace had not vanished.
She had been hunted.
“I moved three times during Lily’s first year.”
Nathan could barely speak.
“How did you end up here?”
“As your maid?”
“Yes.”
Grace smiled sadly.
“I didn’t apply.”
Nathan frowned.
“Your house manager called me.”
“What?”
“She said someone had recommended me.”
Daniel’s head rose.
“Who?”
Grace shook her head.
“I never asked.”
Nathan pulled out his phone.
He called Mrs. Palmer, the house manager.
She answered groggily.
“Nathan?”
“Who recommended Grace Bennett?”
Silence.
“Sir?”
“Three months ago. Who gave you her name?”
Another pause.
“Your father’s old assistant.”
Nathan froze.
“Margaret?”
“Yes.”
Margaret Collins had worked for Edward for nearly twenty years.
She retired shortly before Edward died.
“Why?”
“She said Mr. Cole had left instructions. If a Grace Bennett ever contacted the domestic-placement agency, I was to interview her personally.”
Nathan looked at Daniel.
His father had wanted Grace to return.
Why?
“Where is Margaret now?”
Mrs. Palmer became quiet.
“She died in July.”
Grace inhaled sharply.
“How?”
Nathan asked.
“Car accident.”
The room became silent.
Grace suddenly stood.
“Dead people keep secrets.”
Nathan looked at her.
“What?”
“That’s what Victoria said.”
Grace’s eyes were huge.
“She wasn’t talking about me.”
Understanding spread across Nathan’s face.
Victoria had said:
May you like
Dead people keep secrets.
Grace whispered, “She was talking about Margaret.”
