Chapter 2 - The Restricted File
By sunrise, I had called Ethan twenty-three times.
No answer.
I didn't call Nathaniel.
That was exactly what he would expect.
Instead, I sat on the edge of the hotel bed while Lily slept and forced myself to think like the woman I had been before I became Mrs. Nathaniel Holloway.
Before the mansion.
Before drivers and security guards.
Before every difficult problem mysteriously disappeared.
I had once been an accountant.
Numbers had made sense to me because numbers could lie only when someone taught them how.
Nathaniel's documents were numbers pretending not to tell a story.
I opened the photographs Ethan had sent.
The folder labeled LILY HOLLOWAY — RESTRICTED contained a date.
Seven years earlier.
The month Lily was born.
There was also a handwritten code:
A-17.
At 7:04 a.m., my phone rang.
Nathaniel.
I answered.
"Where's Ethan?"
"Good morning to you too."
"Where is he?"
"At home."
"Let me speak to him."
"No."
My grip tightened around the phone.
"What happened?"
"You told him to protect his brothers. He decided that included breaking into my office."
"Is he hurt?"
A pause.
"No."
I closed my eyes.
"Put him on."
"Come home."
"No."
"Claire."
"Put Ethan on the phone."
Another silence.
Then Ethan's voice.
"Mom?"
"Are you okay?"
"Yeah."
"Did he touch you?"
"No."
Nathaniel's voice came faintly from the background.
Ethan lowered his voice.
"I took something."
"What?"
"The file."
I stood.
"Where is it?"
"I hid it."
"Ethan—"
"I'll get it to you."
The line disconnected.
Thirty minutes later, someone knocked.
I moved Lily behind me before approaching the door.
"Who is it?"
"Hotel manager."
I checked through the peephole.
A middle-aged woman stood outside holding an envelope.
I opened the door only as far as the security latch allowed.
"This was left downstairs for you."
"By whom?"
"Teenage boy."
Ethan.
I took the envelope.
Inside was a brass locker key.
A strip of paper carried four handwritten words:
UNION STATION. LOCKER 214.
Two hours later, Lily and I entered the station.
I kept checking reflections in windows.
Nobody seemed to follow us.
Locker 214 opened with the key.
Inside was the restricted file.
And an old photograph.
Nathaniel stood beside a hospital bed.
He looked younger.
Beside him was a man I recognized immediately.
Victor Sloane.
Nathaniel's former business partner.
Victor had disappeared eight years earlier.
Nathaniel always claimed they had separated professionally.
But in our world, "disappeared" rarely meant retirement.
The woman in the hospital bed was unfamiliar.
On the back of the photograph someone had written:
AUGUST 17 — KEEP HER SAFE.
I turned to the documents.
There were bank transfers.
Security reports.
Birth records.
Then a DNA laboratory envelope.
My pulse accelerated.
Lily tugged my sleeve.
"Mommy?"
I closed the folder.
"Yes?"
"Why doesn't Daddy want me?"
The question nearly broke me.
I knelt.
"He does not get to decide how valuable you are."
"Did I do something?"
"No."
"Then why did he forget me?"
"He didn't."
That answer came before I could stop it.
Because suddenly I knew.
Nathaniel hadn't forgotten Lily.
He had constructed an entire hidden system around her.
Payments.
Security.
False records.
Restricted documents.
A seven-year operation.
People don't spend that much money forgetting someone.
They spend it protecting a secret.
I hugged her.
Then I opened the DNA envelope.
The report was missing.
Only the cover sheet remained.
Someone had removed the result.
But another paper had been clipped beneath it.
A letter.
Claire,
If you're reading this, Nathaniel finally ran out of time.
I recognized the handwriting.
My brother, Daniel.
Daniel had died six years earlier.
At least, that was what I had been told.
My hands went numb.
The letter continued.
Do not trust the family records.
Do not trust the succession documents.
And whatever Nathaniel tells you, do not let them take Lily.
I stopped reading.
Lily looked at me.
"Mommy?"
"I'm okay."
I wasn't.
Daniel had supposedly died in a car accident.
Nathaniel had arranged the funeral.
Closed casket.
I had been too devastated to question anything.
Now my dead brother was writing to me about my daughter.
The final line was worse.
If Nathaniel has finally offered you a choice, choose Lily. He will understand why.
I stared at those words.
Nathaniel had known.
He knew I would choose her.
The divorce dinner hadn't been a test of cruelty.
It had been a signal.
But why?
My phone rang.
Unknown number.
I answered.
A man's voice spoke.
"Mrs. Holloway?"
"Who is this?"
"My name is Adrian Mercer. Your brother asked me to call you if the restricted file was ever opened."
I couldn't breathe.
"My brother is dead."
"No," the man said.
The station seemed to disappear around me.
"What did you say?"
"Daniel isn't dead."
I gripped the locker door.
"Where is he?"
"I can't tell you over the phone."
"Then why should I believe you?"
"Because Nathaniel Holloway didn't erase Lily from his future."
I looked at my daughter.
Adrian continued.
"He erased her from everyone else's records."
"Why?"
A long pause.
"Because seven years ago, someone put a price on the last Holloway child who could legally inherit everything."
I stared at Lily.
"That makes no sense."
"It will."
"Where is Daniel?"
"Come alone."
"I'm not leaving my daughter."
"Then bring her."
He gave me an address.
An abandoned legal office downtown.
The call ended.
I immediately called Ethan.
This time he answered.
"Mom?"
"Listen carefully. Lock your bedroom door."
"Why?"
"Because something about Lily isn't what we were told."
Silence.
Then Ethan said something unexpected.
"I know."
My blood ran cold.
"What?"
"Dad told me last night."
"What did he tell you?"
Before Ethan could answer, someone knocked on my hotel-room door.
Not gently.
Three slow knocks.
I looked through the peephole.
Nathaniel's attorney stood outside.
He held a sealed black envelope.
And behind him stood a man I had not seen in seven years.
Victor Sloane.
May you like
Victor looked directly through the peephole.
Then he smiled.
