Chapter 4
“Where is Lucy?” I asked.
Michael’s eyes narrowed. “I told you. She’s been brought to the mansion.”
“You expect me to take that on faith?”
“I expect you to understand that this is bigger than—”
“No. You expect me to sign a document you won’t explain, while you use an eight-year-old girl to make me obey.” I took a step down. “Where is she?”
Daniel remained between us, one hand close to his radio. Behind me, Elliot stood silent, listening to the footsteps above us start and stop again.
Michael glanced toward the upper landing. “You’re making this worse.”
“That’s not an answer.”
For one hard second, we stared at each other. I had spent years learning how to read a room, how to recognize the pause before a negotiation turned into a threat. Michael was frightened. But he was also trying to control what I knew, and those were not the same thing.
I pulled out my phone.
“Who are you calling?” he demanded.
“The one person who can tell me whether your story is true.”
The hospital answered after two rings. I asked for Allison Reed, then waited while the operator transferred me. The call seemed to stretch long enough for the footsteps above us to start again.
When Allison finally came on, her voice was weak but clear.
“Mr. Ricci?”
“Allison, I’m sorry to wake you. I need to ask you something about Lucy.”
Her breath caught.
“Is she safe?”
“I don’t know yet. Michael says she’s been brought to the mansion.”
“That isn’t true.” Her voice sharpened despite her exhaustion. “Lucy’s with my neighbor. She was supposed to stay there tonight. I told her that before I came to work.”
I closed my eyes for half a second. Relief came first. Anger came right behind it.
“Did anyone from the mansion come for her?”
“No. My neighbor would’ve called me. She has my number, and she knows not to let anyone take Lucy without me.”
“Can you call her now and confirm Lucy’s with her?”
“I can.”
“Please do. And don’t let anyone else near your room.”
“I won’t.” Then, softer: “Mr. Ricci, what’s happening?”
“I’ll explain when I can do it safely. For now, Lucy is with someone you trust.”
“I want to hear her voice.”
“I’ll make sure you do.”
I ended the call and looked at Michael.
“She’s with her neighbor,” I said. “No one brought her here.”
His expression shifted—only slightly, but enough.
“You don’t know that.”
“I just spoke to her mother.”
Michael’s jaw tightened. “You can’t be certain.”
“Neither can you.”
Elliot watched him from the landing above Daniel’s shoulder. “You said she was already here.”
“I was trying to stop Julian from taking you somewhere unsafe.”
“You used a child to do it,” I said.
“I said I was trying to protect this family.”
“Then stop threatening people who have nothing to do with your inheritance.”
Michael’s hands curled at his sides. For a moment, I thought he might push past Daniel. Then the footsteps above us came closer, and his attention snapped toward the landing.
Daniel lifted his radio.
“Security, this is Daniel. Do you copy?”
A crackle answered. “Go ahead.”
“Report: Lucy Reed has been located in the west guest wing. Repeat, the child is inside the house and under protection. Check the west wing now.”
Michael turned sharply toward him.
“That’s a lie.”
Daniel kept his eyes on Michael. “I’m receiving a report from the west wing.”
“No, you’re not. There’s no one in that room.”
Silence settled over the stairwell. The guard on the radio spoke again, asking Daniel to repeat the location.
Daniel lowered the radio just enough to meet Michael’s eyes.
“You said she’d been brought here,” he said. “How do you know she isn’t in the west wing?”
Michael’s mouth opened. Nothing came out.
The answer was in the fear on his face. He didn’t know where Lucy was. He hadn’t brought her here. He’d invented the threat because he thought I would believe that anything was possible inside the walls of my own house.
Daniel spoke into the radio again.
“Disregard that location. No child has been confirmed on the premises. Keep the exits clear and do not approach anyone without my instruction.”
He hadn’t needed to reveal Allison’s call. He hadn’t needed to tell Michael where Lucy actually was.
Michael stepped back. His composure had cracked, and underneath it I saw something smaller and meaner: a man who had run out of leverage and hated the feeling.
“You’re making an enemy of me,” he said.
“You made that choice for both of us.”
For a moment, I thought he would answer. Instead, he looked at Elliot, and the anger in his face gave way to something more complicated.
“You have no idea what our father did to keep this family together.”
“Then tell me.”
Michael looked away.
That was all the answer I needed.
He moved up the stairs, but not before Daniel shifted to keep himself between Michael and us. Michael stopped at the next landing.
“Don’t leave the property,” he said.
“I’m not taking orders from you.”
“You don’t know who’s out there.”
“No,” I said. “But I know who’s been lying in here.”
Michael’s face hardened. Then he disappeared around the bend, moving toward the upper floor.
We waited until his steps faded. The searcher above us had gone quiet, too. Daniel listened to his radio, then nodded once.
“Two guards are moving to the upper corridor. They’ll keep him occupied. We need a clear route out.”
Elliot’s gaze remained fixed on the stairs Michael had climbed. “He’s afraid you’ll find out what happened.”
“Do you know what happened?”
He hesitated. “Not all of it.”
We continued down. Elliot kept close to the wall, taking the steps carefully. He looked younger in the emergency light than he had in the office, and more tired.
“When I was old enough to understand,” he said, “the woman who raised me told me I was born at St. Anne’s.”
I slowed, but Daniel kept moving.
“What did she tell you?”
“That there was a crisis after my birth. An official told my father I hadn’t survived.” Elliot’s voice thinned. “But somebody moved me before the hospital could close the record. I was hidden. Given another name. I spent most of my childhood being told that it was safer not to ask why.”
“Do you know who hid you?”
“No.” He looked down at his hands. “I know someone kept me alive. That isn’t the same as knowing why, or whether they did it for me.”
I knew something about being protected by people who never asked whether protection was what you wanted. My father had built walls around his secrets and called them safeguards. Now we were stumbling through the consequences in a dark stairwell.
“You don’t have to prove anything to me tonight,” I said. “Not your name. Not your claim to the trust.”
Elliot looked at me, wary, as if kindness were another kind of trap.
“I’m not asking you to believe everything I say,” he replied.
“Good. I’m not asking you to.”
At the lower level, Daniel led us through a narrow hall behind the kitchens. The mansion’s party music had stopped. Somewhere upstairs, a guard called out a location over the radio. No one answered.
A housekeeper stepped out of a pantry doorway. She held a ring of keys, her knuckles pale around the metal.
“Mr. Ricci,” she whispered. “I heard them say the east hall was being watched.”
“Did you see anyone near the service entrance?”
She shook her head. “Not yet.”
Daniel looked at me. The choice was mine.
“We need to leave without putting anyone else in the middle of this,” I told her. “If you’re not comfortable helping, say so. I won’t hold it against you.”
She looked toward the kitchen, then toward the hall behind us.
“Miss Langford told the staff to stay in their rooms. She said it was for our safety.” Her mouth tightened. “I don’t think she meant ours.”
She fitted a key into a door I hadn’t noticed, then eased it open. Cool air slipped in from the service lane. Beyond it lay a small side courtyard and the back drive.
Daniel moved through first, checking the corners. He signaled for Elliot, then me.
The housekeeper stayed inside.
“Thank you,” I said.
She gave a brief nod and closed the door behind us.
We crossed the courtyard. Daniel reached for the outer gate, but he stopped before touching it.
Someone stood beyond the iron bars.
Victoria wore the same burgundy dress she had worn at the party. The diamonds at her throat caught the security light. She didn’t look surprised to see me. She looked as if she had been waiting for a late appointment.
“Julian,” she said. “You’re making a terrible mistake.”
Daniel moved half a step forward. “Stay where you are.”
Victoria’s gaze passed over him and settled on me.
“Where’s Michael?” I asked.
“Not here.”
“Where’s Allison?”
May you like
Her smile vanished.
“I know exactly what room she’s in at the hospital.”
