Chapter 3 - WHAT ELEANOR WAS AFRAID OF
Dominic stared at the intercom.
“Come downstairs, Frank.”
A soft chuckle answered him.
“You always did prefer confrontation.”
“Come downstairs.”
“No.”
Dominic's voice hardened.
“Then I'll find you.”
“I know.”
The intercom went dead.
Nobody moved.
Lily looked up at her father.
“Were you bad to Mommy?”
The question hit harder than Frank's accusation.
Dominic crouched in front of her.
“No.”
Then he stopped.
Hannah saw it.
The hesitation.
Dominic corrected himself.
“I never hurt your mother. But there were things about my life that scared her.”
Lily considered that.
“Did you know?”
“Not enough.”
It was an answer a seven-year-old could understand.
It was also honest.
Lily nodded.
Dominic touched her hair.
“Stay with Hannah.”
He stood.
Caroline spoke.
“Frank wants you angry.”
Dominic turned toward her.
“You're not in a position to advise me.”
“I know.”
“Then don't.”
The words were cold.
But Caroline didn't fold.
“Eleanor did plan to leave.”
Agnes looked sharply at her.
Caroline continued.
“She had train tickets.”
Dominic's expression changed.
“Where?”
“I saw them.”
“To where?”
“Boston. Two tickets. One adult, one child.”
Agnes shook her head.
“That proves nothing.”
“It proves Eleanor intended to take Lily.”
Dominic looked toward Agnes.
“Did she?”
Agnes hesitated.
That was enough.
Dominic laughed once.
Empty.
“So Frank told the truth.”
“Part of it,” Agnes said.
Hannah remembered the rule she'd learned working in the Mercer house.
The most dangerous lies were rarely entirely false.
Dominic seemed to understand the same thing.
“What was she running from?”
Agnes answered carefully.
“Your world.”
Not you.
The distinction mattered.
Dominic looked down.
Agnes continued.
“She loved you. But after Lily was taken, Eleanor became convinced your business made your daughter a target.”
Dominic's mouth tightened.
“She wasn't wrong.”
“No.”
That answer seemed to hurt him more than accusation would have.
Caroline stared at the floor.
“Frank used that fear.”
Dominic looked at her.
“How?”
“He convinced Eleanor that you would never let Lily go.”
“Would I have?”
Nobody answered.
Dominic did.
“No.”
He rubbed a hand across his face.
“At the time, I wouldn't have.”
Hannah watched Lily.
The little girl was staring at her father's hands.
Dominic noticed.
He knelt again.
“I should have listened to your mom more.”
Lily asked, “Did she stop loving you?”
His eyes closed briefly.
“No.”
Agnes whispered, “Never.”
Then Lily surprised everyone.
“She left Daddy's watch.”
Dominic looked at her.
“What?”
“Mommy's lady showed me.”
Agnes frowned.
“I didn't show you a watch.”
Lily pointed toward the photograph.
“The other lady.”
Hannah's stomach tightened.
“What other lady?”
Lily looked confused.
“In Mommy's room.”
Dominic said, “Agnes?”
Lily shook her head.
“No. Younger.”
Agnes stared at Caroline.
Caroline stared back.
“It wasn't me.”
Dominic stood.
“Describe her.”
Lily shrugged.
“Brown hair. She cried.”
“When?”
“Yesterday.”
Hannah felt the blood drain from her face.
Someone had been inside the supposedly sealed bedroom before the gala.
Dominic looked at security.
“Cameras.”
His security chief shook his head.
“The west hall camera went offline yesterday from 2:14 to 2:37.”
“Convenient.”
“Yes.”
Dominic looked toward the brass key.
“Let's find what this opens.”
The three numbers hidden in the bell—4, 12, 7—led them back to Eleanor's bedroom.
Dominic searched the shelves.
Four.
Twelve.
Seven.
Hannah noticed the books were numbered faintly in pencil near their spines.
Shelf four.
Book twelve.
Page seven.
Dominic opened an old copy of Jane Eyre.
A rectangle had been cut into the pages.
Inside was a narrow jewelry pouch.
He emptied it into his palm.
A man's wristwatch.
Old.
Steel.
Scratched near the crown.
Dominic stared at it.
“My father gave me this when I turned eighteen.”
Hannah frowned.
“Why did your wife have it?”
“I lost it the night Lily disappeared.”
Agnes looked alarmed.
“Where?”
Dominic's face became distant.
“I don't know.”
“What do you remember?”
Dominic sat slowly on the edge of the bed.
“That night?”
Agnes nodded.
He thought.
“Frank called me around seven. Said a shipment had been hijacked near the river.”
Caroline looked at him.
“Was it?”
“No.”
Dominic's expression darkened.
“By the time I realized the call was false, Lily had vanished.”
Hannah looked at the watch.
“If you lost that while you were away…”
“I didn't.”
Dominic turned it over.
There was dried reddish-brown discoloration under the clasp.
Not wax.
Blood.
Agnes whispered, “Eleanor found that the night Lily was taken.”
Dominic stared at her.
“You knew?”
“She showed it to me.”
“Where did she find it?”
Agnes looked afraid.
“In Lily's nursery.”
Nobody spoke.
Dominic's voice went almost inaudible.
“My watch was in my daughter's nursery while I was across the city.”
“Yes.”
“Someone planted it.”
Agnes nodded.
“To make Eleanor believe you had been there.”
Caroline closed her eyes.
“Frank.”
Agnes looked at her.
“You knew about this too?”
“No.”
For the first time, Caroline sounded genuinely horrified.
Dominic opened the back of the watch.
Something tiny fell onto his palm.
A folded photograph.
It had been trimmed almost impossibly small.
Dominic unfolded it.
Eleanor stood beside a train platform.
Lily, age three, was in her arms.
On the back, Eleanor had written:
I CHANGED MY MIND. I CAME HOME.
Below it:
FIND THE WOMAN WITH MY BRACELET.
Caroline stared.
Agnes grabbed her own wrist instinctively.
Bare.
Dominic noticed.
“What bracelet?”
Agnes swallowed.
“Eleanor owned a gold charm bracelet. Lily's birth date. Your wedding date. A tiny horse.”
Lily brightened faintly.
“My horse?”
“Yes, sweetheart.”
Dominic looked around.
“Where is it?”
Agnes answered.
“It disappeared the night Eleanor actually died.”
Caroline went very still.
Hannah saw it.
“Caroline?”
Everyone turned toward her.
Caroline slowly reached beneath the sleeve of her gown.
She removed a thin gold bracelet.
Three charms glittered beneath the bedroom lights.
A heart.
A date.
And a tiny horse.
Dominic stopped breathing.
Caroline placed it on the bed.
“She gave it to me.”
Agnes stared at her.
“When?”
Caroline's eyes filled.
“At the medical house.”
“Why?”
“She told me if I ever became brave enough to tell Dominic the truth, I should give him this.”
Dominic picked up the bracelet.
“You had four years.”
“I know.”
“You slept beside me wearing something my dying wife gave you?”
“I wore it because I hated myself without it.”
Dominic looked at her with something worse than rage.
Grief.
Then he noticed the horse charm.
It opened.
Inside was a tiny rolled strip of blue satin.
Hannah's pulse jumped.
Dominic unfolded it.
Two words.
ASK CLAIRE.
Dominic frowned.
“Who's Claire?”
Agnes went white.
Caroline backed away from the bed.
“No.”
Dominic looked at her.
“You know.”
Caroline shook her head.
“Dominic, please.”
“Who is Claire?”
Before Caroline could answer, Lily spoke softly.
“The brown-haired lady.”
Everyone turned.
Lily pointed toward the bedroom doorway.
“She told me her name yesterday.”
Dominic stared into the empty hall.
Lily finished:
“She said she was Aunt Claire.”
Caroline's face collapsed.
May you like
Then she whispered:
“Claire is my sister.”
