Chapter 2: Don't Take It
The sun hadn't moved. That was what felt strangest — that the light stayed warm and even on the brick street while Lucas's whole body shook against my leg.
Daniel didn't answer his son right away. His mouth was still open from the last words Lucas had gotten out, the ones that had stopped him cold on the sidewalk. I felt Lucas grip tighter around my jumpsuit, his fingers twisted in the fabric and catching on the edge of my yellow glove.
Then Daniel moved. He dropped to one knee on the pavement, his blazer pulling across his shoulders. He was suddenly at Lucas's eye level, close enough that I could see the fine lines around his eyes and the way his breathing had gone shallow.
"Hey, buddy," he said, and his voice was lower now, trying to be steady. He looked at Lucas, not at me. "Hey. What did Victoria make you hide from? Where did she make you stay?"
Lucas didn't let go of me to answer. He pressed his cheek harder into my thigh, and his voice came out muffled and wet.
"She said to stay hidden," he whispered. "She said she would send us away forever."
Daniel's hand hovered in the air halfway to his son and then stopped, like he wasn't sure if touching him would scare him more. His eyes flicked up to me for the first time since he'd run up the street.
I hadn't planned what to say. My suitcase handle was still in my gloved hand, the metal corners digging into my palm.
"It was this morning," I said. My voice sounded thinner than I wanted it to. "About ten o'clock. Victoria said her diamond bracelet was missing from her dresser. She said I took it."
Daniel's brow creased.
"She told me to pack by four," I went on. "Before you got back. She said you'd already agreed I should go and that it would be easier if I was gone when you got home." I swallowed. "I didn't take anything, Daniel. I told her she could check my suitcase. She said to just leave."
I didn't move the suitcase forward. I just stood there, letting the words sit in the warm air between us. Lucas made a small sound against my leg, and I put my yellow-gloved hand lightly on the back of his head without thinking.
Daniel stared at the scuffed brown suitcase, then at my hand, then back at Lucas. "Four o'clock," he repeated quietly. "She told you to be gone by four."
Before I could answer, the iron gate to the Mercer house clanged.
We all turned. The gate was maybe thirty feet back up the brick-paved street, set between those trimmed hedges and the stone pillars that marked the driveway. Milo was squeezing through it sideways, his little body slipping in the gap. He was Lucas's twin, same light brown hair but cut a little shorter, same dirty light-colored t-shirt. When he saw us he started running, his sneakers slapping unevenly on the bricks.
"Milo?" Daniel said, and he half-stood, his hand finally finding Lucas's shoulder.
Milo didn't stop at his father. He ran straight to me and grabbed onto my other side, his hands fisting in my jumpsuit just like his brother's. He was breathing hard.
"We were in the laundry room," he said all at once, looking up at his dad. "Victoria locked the door. She said not to come out till the lady left. We heard Lucas yell."
Daniel went still again. His hand tightened on Lucas, and his other hand went automatically to Milo's back, but his eyes were unfocused, as if he was trying to hold three different stories in his head at the same time. The locked room. The bracelet. The time I'd been told to leave.
"Locked?" he said. "The laundry room door locks from the outside?"
Milo nodded against me. "She put the chair," he said.
From up the street, a woman's voice called out, clear and calm.
"Daniel? Boys?"
All three of us looked toward the house.
Victoria stood in the open front doorway at the top of the porch steps. She was poised, one hand lightly on the door frame, wearing a cream sweater and dark pants, her hair neat, her posture relaxed like she was greeting guests. The late-afternoon sun hit the front of that big two-story house and made her look almost golden. If you hadn't been standing with two trembling boys clinging to a housekeeper's jumpsuit, you'd have thought nothing was wrong at all.
"You're home early," she said to Daniel, with a small smile. "I thought your flight landed at five. The boys were just playing inside."
May you like
Daniel didn't answer right away. He was still kneeling on the brick street with one son under each hand and me standing over the worn brown suitcase between them. He looked from Victoria's calm face down to Milo and Lucas pressed against my legs, and the color drained from his face.
Victoria's smile held. She tilted her head just slightly, waiting.
