Chapter 2 - THE WOMAN WHO DID NOT RUN
Silence filled the kitchen.
Adrian stared at his daughter.
“What recording?”
Lily pressed her face against his chest.
Celeste recovered first.
“She is confused.”
Her voice sounded calm, but her fingers trembled against the marble island.
“She had an asthma attack.”
“She had an asthma attack because you locked her inside a stone room,” Nora said.
Celeste’s eyes flashed.
“You are a maid.”
“And she is a child.”
Adrian rose slowly with Lily in his arms.
His attention shifted to the bruise on Nora’s cheek.
“Who hit you?”
Nora looked at Marcus.
Marcus immediately shook his head.
“She attacked me.”
Nora gave a bitter laugh.
“I found Lily’s shoe outside the steel door.”
She pointed toward a small silver shoe lying beneath the pantry shelves.
“When I asked where she was, Marcus told me to return to the dining room.”
Adrian’s jaw tightened.
“What happened next?”
“I heard Lily coughing through the wall.”
Nora touched the bruise on her cheek.
“I tried to take the key.”
Marcus stepped forward.
“She lunged at me with a broken glass.”
“The glass broke after Celeste struck me.”
Adrian turned toward Celeste.
The blonde woman lifted her chin.
“Nora has been acting strangely for weeks.”
“She has been searching private rooms.”
“She has been taking photographs.”
“She is obsessed with this family.”
Nora reached into her apron.
Marcus rushed toward her.
One of Adrian’s security guards blocked him.
Nora pulled out a small black phone.
“The camera above the kitchen door recorded everything.”
Celeste looked toward the ceiling.
The security camera’s green light was dark.
Marcus smiled faintly.
“That camera has been disconnected since yesterday.”
“I know,” Nora said.
“That is why I used my phone.”
She pressed the screen.
A video began playing.
Celeste’s voice came through the speaker.
“Tell me where your mother hid it.”
Then Lily’s frightened voice answered.
“I do not know.”
A sharp metallic sound followed.
The recording captured Celeste ordering Marcus to lock the steel door.
Adrian’s breathing changed.
It became slower.
More dangerous.
Celeste’s confidence finally cracked.
“Adrian, listen to me.”
He handed Lily to Nora.
“Take her upstairs.”
Celeste moved toward him.
“I was trying to protect her.”
“From what?”
Celeste looked at the cream-colored rabbit in Lily’s arms.
“From what her mother left inside that toy.”
Lily froze.
Nora looked down at the rabbit.
Adrian saw a thin line of fresh stitches running along its back.
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Someone had opened it recently.
Someone had sewn it closed again.
