Chapter 2 - What Lily Saw Upstairs
Three hours before Lily stopped Vincent’s pen, her greatest concern had been finding Button.
Button had belonged to her since she was two.
His left ear folded backward permanently, one plastic eye was scratched, and Elena had repaired his stomach twice with cream-colored thread.
To anyone else, he was an old stuffed rabbit.
To Lily, he was company.
That afternoon, Elena had been preparing the dining room for the Bellini family when Button slipped from the bottom shelf of a service cart.
“I can get him,” Lily had said.
“Stay here.”
“But Mommy—”
“I'll find him in a minute.”
Elena was balancing crystal glasses worth more than several months of her salary.
Lily waited approximately twelve seconds.
Then she went after Button.
She found him near the upstairs corridor.
The service cart must have rolled over the edge of a rug, sending him farther than Elena realized.
Lily picked him up.
Then she heard voices.
Sophia’s dressing-room door stood slightly open.
Lily recognized Sophia’s voice.
“You said there wouldn't be another test.”
A man answered.
Lily knew him as the doctor with cold hands.
She walked closer.
“I said we could control the timing,” Reed replied. “I never promised there would be no questions.”
“What about the agreement?”
“Once it's signed, you have time.”
“And Bianca?”
“She understands what happens if this collapses.”
Lily understood almost none of it.
She saw a wastebasket near the doorway and noticed a white paper hanging over its edge.
Button slipped from her arm.
He fell into the basket.
Lily reached down.
When she pulled him out, the paper came with him.
She recognized Sophia’s name because Elena had taught her letters using the names of people in the house.
S-O-P-H-I-A.
The paper said Sophia.
Then Reed handed Sophia another document.
That one had a blue star printed in the corner.
Sophia folded it immediately.
Lily stuffed the first paper into her dress pocket because she thought she might have made a mess.
Then Sophia noticed her.
“Children should not wander through private rooms.”
Lily froze.
Minutes later, Elena found her in the hallway.
By the time dinner began, Lily knew only three things.
Mommy was scared.
The paper belonged to Sophia.
And the doctor had said words Lily remembered very clearly.
There was no baby.
Now, nearly four hours later, Vincent sat inside his library while Daniel examined the appointment card beneath a desk lamp.
Elena and Lily were safely downstairs.
Reed, Sophia and Bianca waited in separate rooms.
Vincent had deliberately separated them.
Daniel rotated the card.
“This patient number is the interesting part.”
“How?”
“The number on Lily's card matches the number on the crumpled test.”
Vincent leaned forward.
“But the names don't.”
“Exactly.”
Sophia’s name appeared on the test.
Bianca’s appeared on the appointment card.
Daniel removed his glasses.
“That could be clerical error.”
“Do you believe that?”
“I believe we need evidence before conclusions.”
It was one reason Vincent trusted him.
Daniel was irritatingly difficult to persuade.
Especially when Vincent wanted to be persuaded.
“Find out whether the clinic exists.”
Daniel opened his laptop.
It did.
A private women’s health center forty minutes from Lake Forest.
He called the number publicly listed on its website.
An automated system answered.
Daniel disconnected.
“At least it's real.”
Vincent looked toward the window.
Beyond the glass, the estate grounds disappeared into darkness.
He remembered Sophia telling him six weeks earlier.
They had been having breakfast.
She had slid a small gift box across the table.
Inside was a pair of baby shoes.
Vincent had stared at them without understanding.
Then Sophia smiled.
“We're having a baby.”
For a man who controlled hundreds of employees and negotiated eight-figure contracts without blinking, Vincent had been completely speechless.
His father was dead.
His brother was dead.
His mother had died when he was young.
For years, Vincent had told himself that solitude was freedom.
Then someone told him he was going to become a father, and he discovered how badly he had been lying to himself.
Daniel interrupted the memory.
“That's why you can't investigate this emotionally.”
Vincent looked at him.
“I'm aware.”
“No, you're not.”
Vincent almost smiled.
Few people spoke to him that way.
Daniel continued.
“If Sophia lied, you're angry. If Lily misunderstood, you desperately want that to be true. Both possibilities compromise judgment.”
“So what do you suggest?”
“Records.”
Daniel tapped the appointment card.
“Records don't care what we want.”
A knock sounded.
Elena stood at the library entrance.
“I'm sorry.”
“What is it?”
“Lily can't sleep.”
Vincent stood.
“Is she frightened?”
“Not exactly.”
Elena hesitated.
“She thinks she did something bad.”
Vincent’s expression changed.
“Bring her in.”
A minute later Lily entered in pink pajamas, Button tucked beneath her chin.
She looked at the enormous bookshelves.
“Is this where you sleep?”
Daniel coughed to hide a laugh.
“No,” Vincent said. “It's my library.”
“You have too many books.”
“I've been told that.”
Lily climbed into a chair.
Vincent crouched beside her.
“You didn't do anything wrong.”
“Mommy was crying.”
Elena looked away.
Vincent understood.
She had spent eleven months trying to remain invisible in his household, and her daughter had just detonated the most important family dinner in years.
“Your mother was worried.”
“Because I took the paper?”
“No.”
He considered his words carefully.
“Sometimes adults get scared when something unexpected happens.”
“Are you scared?”
Daniel looked up.
Vincent almost laughed.
“No one asks him that,” Daniel said.
Lily waited.
Vincent answered.
“A little.”
“Me too.”
That honesty struck him harder than expected.
Lily reached into Button’s pocket again.
Daniel immediately straightened.
“Does that rabbit contain an entire filing cabinet?”
Lily giggled.
This time she removed nothing.
“I put things in here so people don't take them.”
Vincent looked at Elena.
“Has she always done that?”
“Since preschool.”
“What kinds of things?”
“Stickers. Crackers. Once my apartment key.”
Daniel smiled.
Vincent didn't.
“Lily, did you put anything else inside Button today?”
She shook her head.
Then stopped.
“Not today.”
Vincent waited.
“The pretty lady did.”
Elena frowned.
“What?”
Lily turned Button around.
“Before.”
“When?”
“Yesterday.”
Vincent’s pulse changed.
“What did Sophia put inside?”
“I don't know.”
“Is it still there?”
Lily shook her head.
“She took it back.”
Elena sat beside her.
“Sweetheart, tell us exactly what happened.”
Lily thought.
“I was coloring in the little room. She came in. She said, ‘Hold this.’ She put something in Button. Then the other lady came.”
“Bianca?”
Lily nodded.
“They talked. Then Sophia took it out.”
“What did it look like?” Daniel asked.
“Little.”
“A card?”
“No.”
“Paper?”
Lily nodded.
“What color?”
“White.”
Daniel leaned back.
Not enough.
Then Lily added, “It had numbers.”
Vincent asked, “What numbers?”
She shrugged.
“Lots.”
Elena stroked her hair.
“That's enough.”
Vincent agreed.
Daniel closed his notebook.
Elena carried Lily toward the door.
Lily looked over her shoulder.
“Mr. Vincent?”
“Yes?”
“The doctor wasn't wearing white before.”
Vincent frowned.
“What was he wearing?”
“Brown.”
That matched her earlier statement.
Daniel waited until they left.
Then he said, “We need Reed's timeline.”
They brought the doctor into the library.
Reed looked older than he had at dinner.
Vincent placed the appointment card on the desk.
“Explain.”
Reed stared at it.
“I can't.”
“Try.”
“I've never seen that.”
Daniel asked, “Were you at this estate before seven thirty today?”
“No.”
“Do you own a brown jacket?”
Reed hesitated.
“Yes.”
“Were you wearing it today?”
“No.”
Vincent watched his eyes.
Reed was frightened.
But frightened and guilty were not synonyms.
“Malcolm,” Vincent said quietly, “if there's something you need to tell me, tonight is the easiest opportunity you'll ever have.”
Reed looked at him for a long time.
Then he whispered, “You don't understand what you're asking.”
“Help me.”
Reed’s gaze moved toward the door.
“Not here.”
Vincent’s eyes narrowed.
“Why?”
Before Reed could answer, Daniel’s laptop chimed.
An email had arrived.
Earlier, Daniel had sent an inquiry to a contact who handled medical-record compliance for the Moretti companies.
He opened the message.
Read it.
Then read it again.
“What?”
Daniel turned the screen toward Vincent.
“The clinic confirmed one thing.”
He pointed to the patient identification number.
“It doesn't belong to Sophia.”
Vincent looked at the appointment card.
“Bianca?”
Daniel shook his head.
“No.”
The number belonged to neither sister.
And according to the clinic’s preliminary response, the patient connected to that number had visited repeatedly over the previous four months.
Vincent stared at the screen.
There was one more detail.
The billing address.
It was his estate.
But the name attached to it was someone none of them had mentioned.
May you like
Someone who had been living under Vincent’s roof the entire time.
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