Chapter 2 - Four Months Missing
Deputy Aaron Mills arrived with another officer eight minutes later.
By then Jason had stopped talking.
Nina sat beside Lily on the living-room sofa while a paramedic examined the little girl’s elbow.
“No obvious fracture,” the paramedic said. “But because she fell near the stairs, I recommend having her checked properly.”
Nina nodded.
Lily leaned against her.
Thomas stood across the room.
He seemed afraid to come closer.
That hurt Nina.
Her own father looked like a visitor waiting for permission.
The deputies separated everyone.
Jason told them Nina had become hysterical during an argument and Thomas had arrived unexpectedly to escalate it.
He described Lily’s fall as an accident.
Nina heard only pieces.
Then Deputy Mills sat opposite her.
“Mrs. Reed, I need you to tell me what happened from the beginning.”
Her first instinct was automatic.
Minimize.
Jason grabbed my hair, but—
He was angry because—
Lily shouldn’t have—
Nina stopped herself.
She looked at Lily.
There would be no but.
“Jason grabbed my hair and forced me over the sink.”
She described it.
Then the shove.
Then Lily’s call.
Mills wrote quietly.
“Has Mr. Reed hurt you before?”
Nina looked toward the kitchen.
Jason was speaking to the second deputy.
Her mouth went dry.
“Yes.”
Thomas closed his eyes.
“How often?”
“I don’t know.”
That sounded ridiculous.
She tried again.
“He’s grabbed me. Blocked doorways. Taken my phone. Once he twisted my wrist because I tried to leave during an argument.”
“Any medical treatment?”
“No.”
“Did your daughter witness previous incidents?”
Nina felt shame rise.
“Some.”
Lily whispered, “I heard more.”
Nina turned.
Lily’s face was buried against her shoulder.
Thomas’s jaw tightened.
Deputy Mills asked no further questions of Lily.
“Someone trained to interview children can speak with her later if necessary.”
Nina was grateful.
When the paramedics prepared to leave for the hospital, Jason approached.
“I’m coming.”
Nina stood.
“No.”
“She’s my daughter.”
“And you just pushed her.”
“It was an accident.”
“You said she needed to stay out of it.”
His eyes hardened.
“Nina.”
Thomas moved closer, but Nina lifted a hand.
She did not need him fighting for her.
Not this time.
Deputy Mills stepped between Jason and the door.
“Mr. Reed, we’re still taking statements.”
Jason looked at Nina as she helped Lily into her coat.
“You’re really leaving with him?”
“I’m taking Lily to the hospital.”
“Then what?”
Nina looked at the man she had slept beside the previous night.
She had no answer.
At the hospital, Lily had a bruised elbow but no fracture.
Nina had tenderness along her scalp and shoulder.
A nurse photographed visible marks with Nina’s consent.
The process made everything real in a way memory had not.
Thomas sat in the waiting area.
For almost two hours, Nina did not speak to him.
When Lily finally fell asleep beneath a cartoon blanket, Nina walked into the corridor.
Thomas stood.
“Nina.”
“Four months?”
He nodded.
“You said you were looking for us for four months.”
“Yes.”
“I talked to you.”
His face tightened.
“No, you didn’t.”
“I called you.”
“My number never received those calls.”
“I heard your voicemail.”
“What voicemail?”
Nina stared.
Jason had played it for her.
Thomas’s voice saying:
Nina, I can’t keep watching you defend that man. Don’t call me again until you’re ready to hear the truth.
“I heard you say you didn’t want me calling.”
Thomas went pale.
“I never recorded that.”
“It was your voice.”
“I believe you.”
“Then how?”
“I don’t know.”
Nina folded her arms.
“Jason said you wanted to take Lily.”
Thomas looked stunned.
“Take her where?”
“He said you had talked to lawyers because you thought I was an unfit mother.”
Thomas’s expression changed from shock to grief.
“Nina.”
“He showed me an email.”
“I have never tried to take Lily from you.”
She wanted to believe him.
But six months of suspicion did not disappear because Jason had done something terrible.
Thomas seemed to understand.
He reached into his briefcase.
“I brought everything I have. You don’t have to read it tonight.”
“What is everything?”
“Emails. Bank records. Messages I sent you that never got responses.”
“Why were you looking for us?”
“Because when you left Manhattan, Jason told the company you wanted no contact with anyone.”
“I did want space.”
“For two weeks.”
Nina remembered saying that.
Two weeks.
Jason had transformed it into six months.
Thomas continued.
“Then your number changed.”
“Jason said our carrier account was compromised.”
“Your email stopped accepting messages from my address.”
“He said you were blocked because you kept harassing us.”
“I never received notice from you.”
Nina looked through the hospital-room glass at Lily sleeping.
“Why did you come today?”
Thomas exhaled.
“I found Meridian Lake’s property insurance filing yesterday. It listed this address.”
“You drove here because of a business filing?”
“I drove here because the shell company I believe Jason controls suddenly listed a private residence, and your name appeared on the utility account.”
Nina turned sharply.
“My name?”
“Yes.”
“I never opened that account.”
Thomas’s expression darkened.
“That’s what I was afraid you’d say.”
Nina felt the corridor move beneath her.
“What exactly do you think Jason did?”
Thomas was quiet.
Then:
“Two years ago, Bennett Outdoor Hospitality started paying Meridian Lake for development consulting.”
“I know.”
“Those payments now total two-point-three million dollars.”
Nina stared.
“That can’t be right.”
“It is.”
“Jason said Meridian handled land acquisitions.”
“They didn’t.”
“How do you know?”
“Because three of the supposed acquisitions never existed.”
Nina shook her head.
“No.”
“The approvals carry your electronic signature.”
Her breath stopped.
“My what?”
“Your authorization appears on six payments.”
“I didn’t approve anything.”
“I know.”
“How could you know?”
Thomas looked at her with tears in his eyes.
“Because the first signature is dated March seventeenth.”
Nina waited.
“You were sitting beside your mother’s grave with me that entire afternoon.”
Memory struck.
March 17.
The anniversary of her mother Evelyn’s death.
Thomas had brought yellow tulips.
Nina had stayed until dark.
Jason had claimed he was working.
Thomas said, “That was the day I realized someone was using your name.”
Nina gripped the wall.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I tried.”
Her anger returned instantly.
“You should have come to me!”
“I did.”
“When?”
“April second.”
Nina remembered.
The disastrous dinner.
Jason and Thomas shouting.
Thomas accusing Jason of stealing.
Jason accusing Thomas of controlling Nina’s trust.
Nina leaving with Jason in tears.
“You never said my signature was involved.”
Thomas’s face broke.
“I did.”
Nina went still.
“No.”
“Yes.”
“No, you said Jason was moving money.”
“And that someone had copied your authorization.”
“I never heard that.”
Thomas stared.
Then his expression changed.
“What did Jason do that night after we argued?”
Nina searched her memory.
“He took me outside.”
“For how long?”
“Maybe ten minutes.”
“And when you came back?”
“You were gone.”
Thomas nodded slowly.
“Jason told me you never wanted to see me again.”
Nina felt cold.
“What?”
“He stood in the doorway and said you were afraid of me.”
“I never said that.”
“I know that now.”
They looked at each other.
Not reconciled.
Not yet.
But standing inside the same terrible possibility.
Someone had been editing both sides of their relationship.
Lily stirred inside the room.
Nina turned toward her.
On the chair beside Lily’s lavender backpack sat the black smartphone.
Nina frowned.
“I thought Jason threw that away months ago.”
Thomas looked at her.
“What?”
“The phone.”
Thomas stepped closer to the glass.
“I gave Lily that phone for emergencies last Christmas.”
“Jason said it stopped working.”
“It has its own prepaid account.”
Nina’s skin prickled.
Lily had kept one line Jason did not control.
Nina entered the room and carefully lifted the phone.
Three missed calls appeared on the screen.
All from Thomas.
Dated months earlier.
There were also unread voicemail notifications.
Nina pressed the first.
Thomas’s voice filled the hospital room.
“Nina, I don’t know if Lily still has this phone. If you hear this, please call me. I’m not trying to take Lily. I’m worried about you.”
The next was two weeks later.
“Nina, Jason told the board you authorized the Meridian payments. I don’t believe him.”
The third was recent.
“I found something connected to the lake. Please, if you get this, don’t confront Jason alone.”
Nina lowered the phone.
Thomas whispered, “I never stopped calling.”
She closed her eyes.
Then Lily murmured from the bed.
“Mommy?”
Nina went to her.
Lily blinked sleepily.
“Is Grandpa staying?”
Nina looked at Thomas.
“I think so.”
Lily’s small hand tightened around hers.
“There’s another thing on the phone.”
Nina’s chest tightened.
“What thing?”
Lily pointed toward the device.
May you like
“Dad didn’t know I took a picture.”
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