CHAPTER 4
Thomas arrived with two security officers.
Nora arrived three minutes later.
My sister took one look at Lily and stopped breathing.
Lily was sitting on my bed in my oversized shirt, hugging Airport.
Nora walked toward her slowly.
“Hey, bug.”
Lily looked at me first.
That tiny motion told me how much damage had been done.
She wanted permission to hug her own aunt.
I nodded.
Lily ran to Nora.
Nora caught her and looked at me over Lily’s shoulder.
Her eyes filled with tears.
“What happened?”
“Not here.”
Claire appeared downstairs carrying a suitcase.
Thomas stepped between us.
“Ms. Harrington, Mr. Whitmore has asked that you leave the property.”
Claire looked at me.
“You’re having security throw me out?”
“Yes.”
“This is unbelievable.”
“Your belongings will be delivered wherever you request.”
“I live here.”
“Not anymore.”
She looked around at everyone.
Nora.
Thomas.
The security officers.
Then she saw Lily in Nora’s arms.
Her voice softened instantly.
“Lily, sweetheart, tell Daddy we were just playing.”
Lily buried her face against Nora.
I stepped forward.
“Don’t speak to her.”
Claire’s eyes flashed.
“I have loved that child while you abandoned her.”
Nora moved before I could.
She crossed the foyer and stopped inches from Claire.
“My brother may have made mistakes.”
Nora’s voice was low.
“But if you use his guilt to excuse what you did to Lily one more time, I will forget every lesson our mother ever taught me about behaving like a lady.”
Claire stared at her.
Then at me.
“You’re destroying our lives.”
“No.”
I shook my head.
“I’m protecting my daughter.”
Thomas escorted Claire outside.
She didn’t fight.
She didn’t cry.
That frightened me more.
She simply looked back through the doorway and said, “This isn’t over.”
Then she left.
I wanted Lily away from the house that night.
Not because I feared Claire returning.
Thomas had already doubled security.
I wanted Lily somewhere that didn’t smell like Claire’s perfume.
Nora lived twenty minutes away in a modest house with her husband, Ben, and their seven-year-old twins.
Their home was loud.
Messy.
There were sneakers near the door and cereal bowls in the sink.
Lily relaxed the moment we arrived.
I almost cried when I saw her drop Airport on the floor without immediately picking him up.
Nora saw it too.
“She usually cleans everything immediately now,” she whispered.
“What?”
“She used to be messy.”
My chest tightened.
“How long?”
Nora hesitated.
“A few months.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I thought Claire was teaching her to clean up.”
“That isn’t what I asked.”
Nora’s eyes hardened.
“You want the truth?”
“Yes.”
“I tried to tell you something felt wrong.”
I stared at her.
“When?”
“April.”
I remembered.
A voicemail.
Nora saying she wanted to talk about Lily.
I had been preparing for a board presentation in Seattle.
I sent Claire a message asking whether everything was okay.
Claire replied that Nora was overreacting because Lily had refused bedtime at her house.
I never called Nora back.
“Oh God.”
Nora folded her arms.
“In June, I called again.”
I remembered that too.
I had been in Boston.
Claire told me Nora was interfering with her discipline.
“I believed Claire.”
“Yes.”
The word hurt because Nora didn’t soften it.
I sat at her kitchen table.
“I believed Claire.”
Nora sat opposite me.
“You loved her.”
“That’s not an excuse.”
“No.”
“I should have listened.”
“Yes.”
Her honesty was brutal.
I needed it.
Then she reached across the table.
“But beating yourself bloody with guilt isn’t going to help Lily.”
“I left her there.”
“You did.”
I looked away.
“And now you’re here.”
I covered my face.
For several minutes, neither of us spoke.
Later, after Lily fell asleep between the twins during a movie, Thomas called.
“We found something.”
I stepped onto Nora’s back porch.
“What?”
“The security system.”
My stomach tightened.
“What about it?”
“Several interior cameras were disabled nine months ago.”
“By whom?”
“Administrative credentials were used.”
“Whose?”
“Yours.”
I stared into the dark yard.
“I didn’t disable anything.”
“I know.”
“How?”
“Someone logged into the security dashboard using your laptop.”
My thoughts went immediately to Claire.
She knew my passwords.
I had never hidden them.
We were supposed to be getting married.
Thomas continued.
“There’s more.”
I gripped the railing.
“The system automatically saves configuration changes. Whoever disabled the cameras missed one.”
“Which camera?”
“The service hallway.”
I stopped breathing.
“That hallway runs past the laundry room.”
“Yes.”
“What did it record?”
“A lot.”
I closed my eyes.
“Tell me.”
“There are clips of Lily going into the laundry room.”
“How many?”
A pause.
“Twenty-three that we’ve found.”
My hand tightened around the phone.
“Why?”
“We can’t hear much. There’s no audio.”
“How long was she inside?”
“Sometimes five minutes.”
Thomas hesitated.
“Sometimes nearly an hour.”
My knees nearly gave out.
“She was locked in there?”
“We don’t know yet.”
Then another voice came through the open porch door.
Small.
Sleepy.
“Daddy?”
I turned.
Lily stood there holding Airport.
I ended the call.
“Hey, baby.”
She walked toward me.
“Why are you outside?”
“Just talking.”
She leaned against my leg.
“Are you leaving?”
“No.”
“Promise?”
I picked her up.
“Promise.”
She rested her head on my shoulder.
May you like
Then she whispered something that made everything Thomas had just told me worse.
“She called it the quiet room.”
