CHAPTER 3
I took Lily to my bedroom.
Then I locked the door.
I had never locked a bedroom door inside my own house before.
That fact alone made me sick.
Lily sat on the bed still wearing the ridiculous maid uniform.
I knelt in front of her.
“Can I take this off?”
She nodded.
I helped her pull the oversized dress over her head.
Underneath she wore a pink T-shirt and leggings.
Normal clothes.
My daughter looked smaller without the costume.
I found one of my shirts and slipped it over her.
It hung almost to her ankles.
She smiled.
Barely.
“I look like you.”
My throat tightened.
“You look much better than me.”
That earned a tiny laugh.
It was the first sound that didn’t hurt.
I handed her the stuffed rabbit.
She hugged it immediately.
“What’s his name?”
She stared at him seriously.
“Airport.”
Despite everything, I laughed.
“Airport?”
“You got him at the airport.”
“That is excellent logic.”
She rested against my chest.
For a few minutes, I let her breathe.
Then my phone started vibrating.
Claire.
I ignored it.
Again.
Ignored.
Again.
Then a message.
You need to come downstairs and talk to me like an adult.
Another.
You are terrifying Lily by making this dramatic.
Then:
You know how emotional she gets.
I stared at the screen.
For months, Claire had used that word.
Emotional.
Lily was emotional when she cried.
Emotional when she missed me.
Emotional when she woke from nightmares.
Emotional when she asked about her mother.
Somewhere along the way, I had accepted the description.
Children were emotional.
It had sounded harmless.
Now it sounded like camouflage.
I called Thomas.
He was head of security for my company and had worked for me twelve years.
He answered immediately.
“Mr. Whitmore?”
“I need you at my house.”
His voice changed.
“Problem?”
“Yes.”
“Danger?”
I looked at Lily.
“Possibly.”
“I’m coming.”
Next I called my sister Nora.
She answered on the second ring.
“You’re back?”
“I need you.”
Silence.
My sister knew me well enough to hear what I couldn’t say.
“What happened?”
“I need somewhere safe for Lily tonight.”
“What happened?”
“Nora.”
“I’m leaving now.”
I hung up.
Lily watched me.
“Are we going away?”
“Yes.”
Her lower lip trembled.
“Because I told?”
My heart broke all over again.
“No.”
She looked unsure.
I sat beside her.
“We’re going because Daddy should have seen what was happening sooner.”
“Am I bad?”
“No.”
“Claire says—”
“I don’t care what Claire says.”
The sharpness of my voice startled her.
I immediately softened.
“Sorry. Listen to me, sweetheart. Nothing you told me made you bad.”
“But I polished wrong.”
“You never should have been polishing her shoes.”
“She said big girls help.”
“Helping is putting toys away or carrying your plate to the sink. Helping is not being scared.”
Lily looked at Airport.
“What if she gets mad?”
“She can get as mad as she wants.”
“Will she punish me?”
“Never again.”
I needed her to believe me.
I wasn’t sure I deserved that belief yet.
A knock came at the bedroom door.
“Ethan.”
Claire.
Lily froze.
I stood.
“Stay on the bed.”
“Don’t go.”
“I’m not leaving the room.”
I walked to the door but did not open it.
“What?”
“We need to talk.”
“Not with Lily here.”
“Then come outside.”
“No.”
“Ethan, this is my home too.”
That stopped me.
Technically, it wasn’t.
Claire had moved in six months earlier.
The property was mine.
The title was mine.
I had allowed her to treat it as ours because I thought we were becoming a family.
I opened the door just enough to step into the hallway, then closed it behind me.
Claire stood there.
No wineglass now.
Her face was controlled again.
“You need to calm down.”
“I am calm.”
“No, you’re not.”
“I found a punishment log.”
“It is not a punishment log.”
“It says ‘practice obedience.’”
“She throws tantrums.”
“She’s four.”
“And you are never here.”
There it was again.
The knife she knew exactly where to place.
“You think because you fly home with stuffed animals, you’re raising her?”
I stared at Claire.
She continued.
“I’m the one who handles the screaming. The meals. The nightmares. The questions about her dead mother.”
My jaw tightened.
“Do not use Amelia to defend this.”
“I am stating reality.”
“No. Reality is my daughter was on her knees polishing your shoe.”
“She was learning consequences.”
“For what?”
Claire hesitated.
“For disrespect.”
“What disrespect?”
“She called me mean.”
I stared at her.
“That’s it?”
“She screamed at me.”
“She’s four.”
“She needs boundaries.”
“She needs safety.”
Claire’s face hardened.
“You have no idea what children need.”
Maybe six hours earlier, that sentence would have wounded my pride.
Now it clarified everything.
“You’re right.”
Claire blinked.
“I’ve been gone too much.”
Her expression shifted.
She thought she had won something.
I continued.
“And because I was gone, I gave you access to her that you never should have had.”
“Ethan—”
“That ends today.”
Her face went white.
“You can’t be serious.”
“Our wedding is canceled.”
She actually laughed.
Not because it was funny.
Because she didn’t believe me.
“You’re canceling our wedding over a child’s tantrum?”
“I’m canceling it because I walked in on you humiliating my daughter.”
“I was correcting her.”
“You were breaking her.”
Claire stared at me.
Then her expression changed.
The softness disappeared completely.
“You will regret doing this.”
The words were quiet.
Controlled.
For the first time, I saw the woman Lily had been seeing when I wasn’t home.
I heard footsteps downstairs.
Thomas had arrived.
I looked Claire directly in the eyes.
“No.”
I opened my bedroom door.
“I already regret what I did.”
She frowned.
May you like
“Which was?”
“Trusting you.”
