Chapter 3 - The Woman Who Came to Take Them Away
The drive to Nathan’s estate took thirty minutes, but Elelliana remained pressed against the car door as if she were still preparing to run.
Nathan sat across from her in the rear compartment of the SUV. Between them, Oliver and Noah slept in their infant carriers, finally warm and fed.
The red-haired woman had been detained by hospital security before she could approach the children. She had identified herself as Vivian Mercer, sister of the twins’ mother.
Dana Wilkes had promised to investigate.
That promise had not comforted Elelliana.
“Is she really your aunt?” Nathan asked gently.
Elelliana watched the streetlights slide across the window.
“My mother called her Viv.”
“Why are you afraid of her?”
“I’m not.”
Nathan waited.
The girl’s fingers twisted the edge of her new coat.
“She came to our apartment after the twins were born. She wanted Mom to sign something.”
“What kind of thing?”
“I don’t know. Mom told me to take the babies into the bedroom.”
“Did they argue?”
“Yes.”
“What did Vivian want?”
Elelliana shook her head.
“I heard Mom say, ‘They are not yours to sell.’”
Nathan’s expression changed.
“Sell?”
“That’s what she said.”
“Did you tell the police?”
“The police didn’t ask me. They asked where the matches were.”
Nathan leaned forward.
“What matches?”
Elelliana’s face closed.
“The ones they found near my bed.”
The SUV passed through iron gates and followed a curved driveway lined with bare trees. Ahead stood a three-story stone mansion illuminated by warm exterior lamps.
Elelliana stared at it.
“That’s your house?”
“Yes.”
“How many people live there?”
“Usually just me.”
She looked at its dozens of windows.
“That’s stupid.”
Nathan almost laughed.
“You may be right.”
His housekeeper, Mrs. Alvarez, met them at the entrance. She was a silver-haired woman in her sixties with kind eyes and the practical manner of someone who had spent years keeping Nathan alive despite his resistance.
When Nathan had called from the hospital, she had prepared three bedrooms, purchased additional baby supplies, and ordered enough groceries to feed a family of ten.
She greeted Elelliana without attempting to touch her.
“Your room is beside the nursery,” Mrs. Alvarez said. “But you may sleep wherever you feel safest.”
“I sleep with them.”
“Then we’ll put another bed in the nursery.”
Nathan looked toward the staircase.
The nursery had not been opened in five years.
Mrs. Alvarez caught his expression.
“I prepared the east guest room,” she said quietly. “Not that room.”
Elelliana noticed the exchange.
“What’s in the other room?”
“Nothing you need to worry about,” Nathan replied.
She did not believe him.
At dinner, Elelliana ate slowly at first. Then, when she realized nobody would take her plate, she consumed two bowls of soup, three pieces of bread, and half an apple.
She wrapped the remaining apple in a napkin and slipped it into her pocket.
Nathan pretended not to notice.
When Mrs. Alvarez brought a bottle for Noah, Elelliana reached for it automatically.
“You should rest,” Nathan said.
“I feed him.”
“You have been feeding both babies for three weeks.”
“That’s why I know how.”
Her tone carried a warning.
Nathan nodded.
“All right. Show me.”
She sat on the sofa and instructed him to position a towel beneath Noah’s chin. She corrected the angle of the bottle and demonstrated how to pause for burping.
“You can’t hold it too high,” she said. “And you have to watch his breathing.”
Nathan followed every instruction.
Elelliana watched him with suspicion.
“You really don’t have children?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
Mrs. Alvarez stopped arranging dishes.
Nathan stared at Noah’s tiny fingers curled around his thumb.
“I was going to.”
Elelliana waited.
He did not continue.
Later, as Mrs. Alvarez bathed the twins, Nathan stood in his study speaking with Dana.
Vivian Mercer had filed for immediate kinship custody.
“She has documentation,” Dana said over the phone. “Birth records, family photographs, proof of relationship.”
“Does she have a safe home?”
“On paper, yes. She lives in a two-bedroom townhouse and works for a private adoption consulting agency.”
Nathan frowned.
“What kind of agency?”
“New Beginnings Family Placement.”
“I want it investigated.”
“Mr. Vale, we investigate every potential guardian.”
“Investigate more.”
Dana sighed.
“You cannot buy control of this case.”
“I’m not trying to.”
“You hired three attorneys before the children reached your house.”
“I hired people who understand the system.”
“You met these children yesterday.”
Nathan looked through the study window toward the dark lawn.
“That should not make their safety matter less.”
Dana was silent for a moment.
“The court hearing is Monday morning. Vivian is requesting all three children.”
Nathan’s jaw tightened.
“Elelliana is terrified of her.”
“Fear is relevant, but not conclusive. Children sometimes fear relatives who enforce rules.”
“She said Vivian wanted to sell the babies.”
“I’ll document the statement.”
“Documenting it won’t protect them if nobody believes her.”
“Then help us find evidence.”
Nathan ended the call and contacted his private investigator, Marcus Bell.
“Find everything on Vivian Mercer and New Beginnings,” he ordered. “Financial records, complaints, former clients.”
Marcus paused.
“This related to the children in the news?”
“Yes.”
“I saw the footage. The little girl looked like she trusted you.”
“She doesn’t.”
“Then why was she holding your hand?”
“Because she was more afraid of everyone else.”
Upstairs, Elelliana stood outside the locked nursery.
She had followed Mrs. Alvarez down the hallway after the twins fell asleep. The older woman carried linens into a guest closet and returned to find the girl staring at the white door.
A small silver moon had been painted near the handle.
“Whose room is this?” Elelliana asked.
Mrs. Alvarez hesitated.
“It was prepared for someone who never came home.”
“Did they die?”
The question was blunt, but not cruel.
Mrs. Alvarez looked toward the staircase.
“Mr. Vale’s wife was expecting a child.”
Elelliana touched the painted moon.
“What happened?”
“There was an accident.”
“Was there a fire?”
Mrs. Alvarez’s eyes sharpened.
“No.”
Elelliana stepped back.
Nathan appeared at the end of the hallway.
“Bedtime.”
Elelliana turned.
“Why do you lock an empty room?”
“Because sometimes a closed door is easier than an open one.”
“That doesn’t make sense.”
“It will when you’re older.”
“I’m already older than I’m supposed to be.”
Nathan had no answer to that.
That night, Elelliana lay on a narrow bed beside the twins’ cribs. She kept the bedside lamp on and the diaper bag packed beneath her pillow.
At 2:13 a.m., an alarm sounded.
Nathan woke instantly.
He ran barefoot into the hallway and found Elelliana crouched beside Oliver’s crib.
“He stopped breathing!”
Nathan lifted the baby as Mrs. Alvarez called emergency services. The hospital had provided a breathing monitor, and the alarm continued its shrill warning.
“Oliver,” Elelliana pleaded. “Please.”
Nathan remembered the nurse’s instructions. He placed the baby on a flat surface and gently stimulated his feet.
Oliver gave a sudden cry.
The sound filled the room.
Elelliana collapsed against the crib.
Paramedics arrived and examined him. The episode had likely been caused by reflux, but they recommended immediate evaluation.
At the hospital, Elelliana sat rigidly beside Nathan.
“You were sleeping,” she said.
“Yes.”
“But you came.”
“Yes.”
“You didn’t get angry.”
“Why would I?”
“My mother’s boyfriend got angry when the babies cried.”
Nathan turned toward her.
“What boyfriend?”
“His name was Dean.”
“Was he living with you?”
“Sometimes.”
“Was he there the night of the fire?”
Elelliana looked toward the examination room.
“I don’t know.”
“Elelliana.”
“He left before the firefighters came.”
Nathan’s pulse quickened.
“Did you see him leave?”
“I saw his red truck.”
“Did you tell anyone?”
“He said nobody would believe me.”
“Why?”
“Because of the matches.”
Nathan leaned closer.
“Did you start that fire?”
Her eyes snapped to his.
“No.”
“I believe you.”
The answer came before she could defend herself.
Her face crumpled.
“Mom told me to run,” she whispered. “There was smoke under the door. She gave me the babies through the bedroom window.”
Nathan remained completely still.
“What happened to your mother?”
“She went back.”
“For what?”
Elelliana reached beneath her shirt and pulled out a thin chain. Attached was a small brass key blackened by soot.
“For the box.”
Nathan touched the key carefully.
“What box?”
“I don’t know. She said I had to keep the key away from Vivian and Dean.”
“Where is the box?”
“In the apartment.”
“The building was destroyed.”
“Not all of it.”
“How do you know?”
“I went back.”
Nathan stared at her.
“When?”
“Before the grocery store.”
“You entered a burned building while carrying two babies?”
“I needed to find it.”
“Did you?”
She shook her head.
“The floor was gone.”
Nathan took out his phone and called Marcus.
“I need the fire report for 418 Altamont Street. Every photograph, witness statement, and property record.”
Elelliana touched his arm.
“You won’t tell Vivian about the key?”
“No.”
“Promise?”
“I promise.”
They returned to the mansion shortly before dawn.
A sedan was parked outside the gate.
Vivian Mercer stood beside it with a television camera crew.
Nathan stepped from the SUV.
“What are you doing here?”
Vivian faced the camera with tears glistening in her eyes.
“I’m trying to rescue my sister’s children from a billionaire who took advantage of a traumatized little girl.”
Elelliana remained inside the vehicle.
Vivian raised a photograph.
It showed Elelliana’s mother smiling beside the red-haired woman.
“My sister wanted me to raise those children if anything happened to her,” Vivian declared. “Nathan Vale is using his money to steal my family.”
Reporters crowded closer.
Nathan’s attorney whispered, “Do not respond.”
Vivian looked directly toward the SUV.
“Elelliana, sweetheart, tell them who started the fire.”
The girl’s breathing became shallow.
Nathan opened the rear door and positioned himself between her and the cameras.
Vivian’s voice sharpened.
“Tell them about the matches under your bed.”
Elelliana covered her ears.
Nathan turned toward the reporters.
“This child will not be interrogated on my driveway.”
Vivian smiled.
“The police report says the fire began in her bedroom. Are you willing to risk two babies for a child who may have killed her own mother?”
Nathan took one step toward her.
“My attorney will contact you.”
“Court is Monday,” Vivian replied. “And when the judge sees the report, those babies are coming home with me.”
That afternoon, Marcus arrived carrying a sealed folder.
Nathan opened the fire report at his desk.
The official conclusion read: Accidental ignition caused by matches handled by a minor.
But beneath it was a photograph that made him lean forward.
Near the burned bedroom window sat a silver metal box.
On its lid was a faded corporate emblem.
Nathan recognized it immediately.
May you like
It belonged to one of his own companies.
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