Chapter 3: Truth Has Tiny Footsteps
Chapter 3: Truth Has Tiny Footsteps
The following morning, Nathaniel arrived at the hospital earlier than usual.
He expected to find his mother asleep.
Instead, Margaret was staring out the window.
Without turning around, she said quietly,
"Stop planning board meetings."
Nathaniel blinked.
"What?"
"You only visit this early when your mind is working harder than your heart."
Despite everything, he smiled.
"You always could read me."
Margaret finally faced him.
"Do you believe me?"
Nathaniel hesitated.
"I believe you think someone pushed you."
"No."
She held his gaze.
"I know someone pushed me."
Silence stretched between them.
"Who?"
Margaret answered immediately.
"Vivien."
Nathaniel wanted to ask why.
Instead he asked,
"Can you prove it?"
Margaret looked away.
"No."
Back at the estate, Daniel, the head of security, walked into Nathaniel's office carrying a folder.
"I found something."
Nathaniel opened it.
"The cameras weren't malfunctioning."
"They were manually disconnected."
"When?"
"Seven minutes before your mother's fall."
Nathaniel's expression darkened.
"Who had access?"
Daniel swallowed.
"Only three people."
"You."
"Myself."
"And Miss Cole."
Across the hall, Rosa struggled through her morning chores while keeping Lily close.
Every time Vivien entered a room, Lily hid behind her mother's legs.
Children rarely hid without reason.
Vivien noticed.
She crouched with a warm smile.
"Hello, sweetheart."
Lily refused to answer.
Vivien offered chocolate.
Lily whispered,
"I don't like you."
The smile remained.
"But why?"
"You pushed Grandma."
Rosa nearly dropped the silver tray.
The hallway became painfully quiet.
Vivien slowly stood.
Her eyes met Rosa's.
Neither woman spoke.
Finally Vivien smiled.
"Children have wonderful imaginations."
She walked away.
But Rosa noticed something terrifying.
Vivien no longer ignored Lily.
Now...
She watched her.
That evening, Nathaniel found Rosa waiting outside his office.
She looked ready to resign.
"Mr. Whitmore..."
"What is it?"
She trembled.
"I shouldn't be saying this."
"Then why are you?"
"Because if I don't..."
She looked toward the nursery.
"...I'm afraid someone else will get hurt."
Nathaniel listened without interrupting.
When she finally repeated Lily's words...
He didn't laugh.
He didn't dismiss them.
Instead, he quietly asked,
"Can I speak with your daughter?"
Nathaniel sat on the nursery floor instead of in a chair.
He wanted to seem less frightening.
Lily studied him carefully.
"Were you with Grandma yesterday?"
"Uh-huh."
"What happened?"
Lily picked up two toy dolls.
One older.
One wearing a tiny plastic crown.
"The pretty lady said..."
Lily lowered her voice.
"'You won't stop this wedding.'"
Then she pushed the older doll.
It tumbled down the toy staircase.
Lily looked up.
"Grandma didn't fall."
Nathaniel felt every hair on his arms stand.
Children could invent stories.
But children almost never invented adult conversations.
Someone had said those exact words.
Late that night...
Nathaniel quietly entered Vivien's private sitting room.
He wasn't searching for evidence.
He was searching for answers.
Inside a locked drawer, he found something unexpected.
A photograph.
Vivien as a teenager.
Standing beside a woman Nathaniel recognized instantly.
His father's former personal assistant.
The woman who had mysteriously disappeared twenty years earlier after rumors of an affair.
On the back of the photo were four handwritten words.
He owes us everything.
Nathaniel stared at the picture.
May you like
His engagement had never been about love.
It had begun decades before they met.
