Chapter 2 - The Daughter Nobody Had Seen
Gabriel had never heard his daughter sound so frightened.
He reached toward Nia, but she stepped closer to Rachel.
That hurt more than he expected.
Not because Nia was rejecting him.
Because the person she trusted most in that moment was a stranger.
Gabriel looked at Rachel.
“Please stay with her.”
Rachel nodded.
He took out his phone and called emergency services.
Vanessa stared at him.
“Gabriel, you cannot seriously be calling the police over a misunderstanding.”
He turned away from her and gave the dispatcher his address.
“There is a child here who was locked inside a confined space,” he explained. “Her wrists were restrained. She's out now, but I need someone to come.”
Vanessa began pacing.
“Do you have any idea what this will do to our reputation?”
Gabriel looked at her.
For the first time that evening, he seemed genuinely unable to recognize the woman he'd married.
“My daughter was trapped behind a wall.”
“She wasn't hurt!”
Rachel looked down at Nia's wrists.
The skin was red where the ribbon had pressed against it.
Nia pulled her hands into her sleeves.
Rachel gently asked whether she wanted to sit down.
The little girl nodded.
They moved into a small library across the hallway.
Gabriel followed.
Vanessa tried to enter, but Nia immediately clung to Rachel.
“No, Daddy. Please.”
Gabriel stopped his wife at the doorway.
“Stay outside.”
Vanessa stared at him.
“You're choosing a waitress over your wife?”
“I'm listening to my daughter.”
He closed the door.
Inside the library, Rachel helped Nia sit on a soft leather couch.
Gabriel brought her a glass of water.
Nia held it with both hands but didn't drink.
Gabriel sat across from her.
“Sweetheart, can you tell me what happened?”
Nia looked at Rachel.
Rachel gave her a small reassuring nod.
“I was supposed to wear my new dress,” Nia began.
Gabriel looked at the white fabric gathered around her knees.
“You look beautiful.”
Nia didn't smile.
“Vanessa said I could come downstairs when the guests arrived.”
Gabriel nodded.
“But then she said I was embarrassing her.”
“Why would she say that?”
Nia swallowed.
“Because I asked where Mommy's picture went.”
Gabriel felt his chest tighten.
Nia's mother, Danielle, had died three years earlier.
Before her death, she'd been a school art teacher. She had filled their home with paintings, photographs, and colorful handmade decorations.
Gabriel had never removed her things from Nia's bedroom.
But downstairs, the house had changed considerably since he'd married Vanessa eighteen months earlier.
The old family photographs had gradually disappeared.
Vanessa called it redecorating.
Gabriel had barely noticed.
Nia looked toward the library fireplace.
“Mommy's picture used to be beside the piano.”
Gabriel remembered.
A framed photograph from a family trip to Charleston.
Danielle laughing with her arms wrapped around Nia.
“Vanessa said it didn't belong at the party,” Nia continued.
“I told her I wanted Mommy to be there too.”
Gabriel lowered his eyes.
“What happened then?”
“She said I was being difficult.”
Nia rubbed her wrists.
“She told me to go upstairs. But I wanted to tell you because you promised I could stay with you tonight.”
Gabriel remembered that promise.
That morning, he'd told Nia she could help welcome their guests.
She had spent an hour practicing how to say hello without sounding nervous.
“Did you tell Vanessa that?”
Nia nodded.
“She got really mad.”
Rachel listened quietly.
Nia's voice became smaller.
“She took me down the hallway and told me I needed to learn a lesson.”
Gabriel looked toward the closed library door.
His breathing had become uneven.
“She tied my hands with a ribbon from the decorations,” Nia whispered.
Then she looked directly at her father.
“She said nobody wanted to hear me talk about my dead mommy.”
Gabriel pressed his palms together.
For months, he'd told himself Vanessa was doing her best to adjust to being a stepmother.
He'd accepted explanations about Nia being moody.
Sensitive.
Difficult.
He had never considered how those words might have been used against her.
“Nia,” he said carefully, “has anything like this happened before?”
She hesitated.
Rachel noticed her looking toward the door again.
Gabriel saw it too.
“I won't let Vanessa come in while we're talking,” he said.
Nia stared at her water.
“She makes me stay in my room when her friends come over.”
Gabriel felt a coldness settle in his stomach.
“How often?”
“A lot.”
“Why didn't you tell me?”
Nia looked confused.
“I did.”
Gabriel went still.
“When?”
“Last month. When you were leaving for Chicago.”
He remembered that morning.
Nia had tried to speak to him before an early flight.
He'd been rushing to find his laptop charger.
Vanessa had interrupted, saying Nia was upset about being grounded.
Gabriel had kissed his daughter's forehead and promised they would talk when he returned.
They never did.
Now Nia looked at him with tears in her eyes.
“You said I had to listen to Vanessa.”
Gabriel lowered his head.
May you like
He remembered those words.
And he finally understood what his daughter had heard.
