Chapter 2 - The Boy Behind the Window
I stared across the courtyard.
The small hand disappeared.
For several seconds, nobody moved.
Then Liam shouted.
“Close them!”
Leo crossed the room and yanked the blinds down.
Darkness swallowed the window.
“What did I just see?” I demanded.
Leo turned toward me.
“You saw nothing.”
“A child is locked in another part of this house.”
“He isn’t locked anywhere.”
“Then why are the windows boarded?”
“Claire.”
Liam’s voice stopped me.
He looked exhausted now.
Not angry.
Defeated.
“Leave it alone.”
That frightened me more than his temper ever had.
Because Liam Mercer did not look like a man accustomed to surrender.
Leo ordered the guards outside.
Then he approached the bed.
“You promised.”
“I didn’t open them.”
Both men looked at me.
I lifted my hands.
“Apparently I’m responsible for ruining everyone’s mysterious afternoon.”
Leo exhaled.
“You should pack.”
My stomach dropped.
Friday was tomorrow.
Tommy needed that money.
“No.”
“This isn’t negotiable.”
“You hired a nurse. His infection is improving. His fever is down. The pin sites are clean. He’s finally taking medication without making me threaten to hide it in pudding.”
Liam gave me a look.
I ignored him.
“You can fire me tomorrow after I finish the week.”
Leo’s expression hardened.
“Claire—”
“She stays.”
Liam’s voice was quiet.
Leo turned.
“What?”
“She stays.”
“Liam.”
“I said she stays.”
Leo stared at him for several seconds.
Then he left.
I waited until the door closed.
“Your son?”
Liam looked toward the covered window.
“Evan.”
“How old?”
“Seven.”
“Why is he over there?”
“To keep him safe.”
“From whom?”
Liam looked at me.
“Me.”
That answer followed me all night.
The next morning, an envelope waited outside my room.
Inside were ten thousand dollars in cash.
Every dollar promised.
There was also a note.
Your second week begins today. Same rate.
I should have left.
I had enough to buy Tommy time.
Instead, I stayed.
Because the previous afternoon had changed something.
I no longer believed I had been hired simply to treat an injured man.
Someone wanted me inside that mansion.
And someone had known exactly how desperate I was.
Later that morning, I was replacing Liam’s IV when he said, “Your brother has acute lymphoblastic leukemia.”
My hands stopped.
The room seemed to tilt.
“How do you know that?”
No answer.
“Liam.”
He looked at me.
“Tommy Bennett. Twenty-two. St. Catherine’s. Relapsed four months ago.”
I backed away.
“You investigated me.”
“I investigate everyone who enters this house.”
“The anonymous call?”
“That wasn’t me.”
A chill moved through me.
“What?”
“I didn’t hire you.”
I stared at him.
“Leo did?”
“No.”
“Then who?”
“That’s what I’ve been trying to determine.”
Suddenly, the money in my pocket felt less like salvation and more like bait.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because until you opened those blinds, I assumed you were working for whoever sent you.”
“And now?”
“Now I think you’re too reckless to be a professional spy.”
“Thank you.”
“It wasn’t a compliment.”
I folded my arms.
“What happened to Evan’s mother?”
Liam went still.
“Her name was Sofia.”
“Was?”
“She died eighteen months ago.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be.”
The bitterness in his voice surprised me.
“She died because of me.”
That evening, Liam finally told me what happened.
Sofia had wanted to leave Chicago with Evan.
Liam had agreed.
Before they could go, their car was attacked on a road outside the city.
Sofia died.
Evan survived.
Afterward, Liam became convinced someone inside his organization had betrayed them.
He moved Evan into the mansion’s protected east wing.
No school.
No public appearances.
Only tutors, doctors, and a handful of trusted staff.
“And you stopped seeing him?”
“I stopped letting him see me.”
“Why?”
“Because everyone close to me becomes leverage.”
“That’s not protection.”
His eyes hardened.
“Don’t tell me what protection is.”
“I’m telling you what isolation is.”
He turned away.
“You don’t understand.”
“I understand a sick person staring at sunlight while pretending he prefers darkness.”
That hit something.
His eyes snapped back to mine.
I continued.
“You don’t keep those blinds closed because you hate light. You keep them closed because you can see Evan’s room from here.”
Silence.
“And looking at him hurts.”
Liam said nothing.
I finally understood.
The darkness wasn’t about pain.
It was punishment.
He believed he had destroyed his family.
So he had decided he didn’t deserve to look at what remained of it.
That night, I heard a sound in the corridor.
A child crying.
I opened my door.
Evan stood barefoot twenty feet away.
He wore blue pajamas and clutched a stuffed bear.
He stared at me.
“You’re the nurse.”
“I am.”
“Is my dad dying?”
My heart tightened.
“No.”
“Everyone lies when I ask.”
“I won’t.”
“Promise?”
“I promise.”
He looked toward Liam’s door.
“Can I see him?”
Before I could answer, footsteps approached.
Leo appeared.
“Evan.”
The boy flinched.
“Back to your room.”
“I want Dad.”
“Not tonight.”
“Why?”
Leo crouched.
“Because your father needs rest.”
Evan’s eyes filled.
“He always needs rest.”
Then he ran.
I rounded on Leo.
“That boy thinks his father is dying.”
“He’s safe.”
“That isn’t the same thing.”
“You’re here to treat Liam.”
“I’m beginning to realize nobody in this house knows what treatment means.”
Leo’s face tightened.
“You don’t know what happened.”
“Then tell me.”
He glanced toward Liam’s door.
“Sofia wasn’t the only person in that car.”
I froze.
“What?”
“There was another passenger.”
“Who?”
Leo looked directly at me.
“Liam’s younger brother, Daniel.”
“What happened to him?”
“We never found his body.”
A cold feeling moved through me.
Leo lowered his voice.
“Three days before you arrived, someone used Daniel Mercer’s private security code to enter this estate.”
I stared at him.
“That’s impossible.”
“That’s what we thought.”
Then he handed me a photograph from a security camera.
A blurred figure stood at the edge of the property.
On his wrist was a distinctive silver watch.
I had seen that watch before.
Earlier that morning.
May you like
On the man who delivered my ten-thousand-dollar envelope.
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