Chapter 4 - THE LITTLE GIRL IN THE RED COAT
Evan took Grace.
Lily would remember that moment for the rest of her life.
Her daughter's red pajamas.
Her bare feet.
The way Grace reached toward her and screamed, “Mommy!”
Lily fought.
Two men held her.
Grant attacked the first gunman before anyone expected him to move.
The room erupted.
Daniel fired.
Blair crawled behind the sofa.
Lily drove her heel into the foot of the man restraining her.
She broke free.
“Grace!”
Evan was already running.
Grant followed.
They reached the front entrance as a black SUV disappeared through the damaged gate.
Lily ran into the rain.
Grant caught her.
“Let me go!”
“You can't catch a car!”
“He has my baby!”
Her scream broke something in him.
Grant held her while she fought him.
Then Lily collapsed.
“He has her.”
“I know.”
“He'll hurt her.”
“No.”
“You don't know him.”
Grant held her face.
“Listen to me.”
She looked at him.
“I will bring Grace home.”
“How?”
“I have spent twenty years building a company that knows where people go, what they own, and what they hide.”
His eyes hardened.
“Evan Mercer just made himself the only thing in the world I care about finding.”
Blair appeared behind them.
“I know where he's going.”
Lily turned.
Blair looked terrible.
Mascara streaked her face.
“He has a cabin in Vermont.”
“How do you know?”
“My father bought it.”
Grant called Daniel.
Within seven minutes, they had an address.
Police wanted Lily to stay behind.
She refused.
Grant did not argue.
They traveled north in a helicopter.
Blair came too.
Lily hated her for it.
But Blair knew Charles Sutton's security habits.
The cabin sat near an abandoned ski resort.
Thermal cameras detected four adults.
One child.
Grace was alive.
Lily cried when she heard that.
Grant sat beside her.
He did not offer empty reassurance.
He simply held her hand.
At dawn, Daniel's team surrounded the cabin.
Evan called Lily.
“Come inside alone.”
“No.”
“Then Grace gets cold.”
Lily heard her daughter crying.
“Mommy.”
She stood.
Grant blocked her.
“You're not going alone.”
“He'll hurt her.”
“He'll hurt you.”
“I am her mother.”
“And Grace needs you alive after this.”
Lily stared at him.
No one had ever said that to her.
Not Evan.
Not her parents.
Not the exhausted social worker who once handed her a list of shelters.
Grant continued.
“We do this together.”
Lily entered the cabin wearing a hidden microphone.
Evan stood beside the fireplace.
Grace sat on a chair in her red coat.
Her hands were tied with a scarf.
Lily nearly broke.
“Mommy!”
“I'm here, baby.”
Evan held a gun.
“You brought Ashford.”
“No.”
“You're lying.”
“You taught me how.”
His expression changed.
Lily had never challenged him when they were together.
She had been nineteen.
Lonely.
Easy to control.
She was not nineteen anymore.
“Let Grace go.”
“She is my daughter.”
“You don't know her birthday.”
Evan frowned.
“You don't know her favorite food.”
“Lily.”
“You don't know she hates bananas but eats banana bread. You don't know she sleeps with one sock off because she says her foot gets lonely under the blanket.”
“Shut up.”
“You don't know her.”
His hand shook.
Lily saw it.
“You are not her father.”
Evan raised the gun.
The window shattered.
Grant entered from the side.
Evan fired.
Lily screamed.
Grant fell.
Daniel's team stormed the cabin.
Evan was tackled.
Lily reached Grace.
She tore away the scarf and held her daughter.
Grace sobbed against her.
“Mommy has no purple hurt?”
“No, baby.”
Lily looked across the room.
Grant lay near the window.
Blood spread across his coat.
Her heart stopped.
“Grant.”
He opened his eyes.
“The vest worked.”
Lily stared at him.
Then she hit his shoulder.
He winced.
“That seemed unnecessary.”
“You got shot!”
“Technically, the vest got shot.”
Grace reached toward him.
“Big man!”
Grant sat up.
Grace escaped Lily's arms and ran to him.
He caught her.
Lily watched them.
Something inside her shifted.
Evan was dragged past in handcuffs.
He looked at Grace.
“She is mine.”
Lily stood.
“No.”
Her voice did not shake.
“She never was.”
Evan disappeared into the police vehicle.
Grant held Grace.
The sun rose over the snow.
Lily thought the nightmare had ended.
Then Blair's phone rang.
She answered.
Her face went white.
“What?”
Grant looked at her.
Blair lowered the phone.
“My father knows Evan failed.”
“And?”
“He activated the second plan.”
Grant's expression hardened.
“What second plan?”
May you like
Blair looked at Lily.
“He's going to destroy Ashford Industries.”
