Chapter 5 - what vanessa did to lily)
The search began quietly.
Arthur did not want guests to know anything was wrong.
The orchestra continued playing.
Servers continued carrying champagne.
Florists adjusted roses.
The wedding coordinator kept smiling through growing panic.
But inside Mercer House, Arthur led Mara, Claire, Grant, and Vanessa toward the old sitting room.
Lily stayed with Mara.
Nobody argued.
The room had belonged to Arthur's late wife, Eleanor.
Mara remembered her.
Eleanor had been gentle in ways nobody else in the Mercer family seemed capable of being.
She had died when Lily was only six months old.
The room had been preserved almost exactly as she left it.
Cream sofa.
Piano.
Books.
A portrait of Eleanor standing in the garden.
And against the far wall, a narrow antique cabinet.
Arthur approached it.
The lock was small.
Silver.
Mara held up the key.
Grant said, "This is absurd."
Arthur turned.
"Then you should have nothing to worry about."
Mara inserted the key.
It fit.
The lock clicked.
Vanessa's face drained.
Mara opened the cabinet.
Empty.
Arthur stared inside.
"No."
Vanessa exhaled.
Grant looked relieved.
Claire noticed.
"So the box is gone."
Arthur ran his hand along the shelf.
"I put it here myself."
"Three years ago," Grant said. "Someone obviously moved it."
Arthur turned.
"Who?"
Grant shrugged.
"You had staff everywhere."
Vanessa added, "Mom's things were moved after she died."
"No."
Arthur's voice sharpened.
"Nobody touched this cabinet."
Lily tugged Mara's hand.
"Mommy."
"One second, sweetheart."
"But the red lady knows."
The room went silent.
Vanessa looked down.
"What did you say?"
Lily moved behind Mara.
Mara crouched.
"What does she know?"
Lily whispered, "The box."
Vanessa laughed.
"She's four."
Mara ignored her.
"Lily, did Vanessa talk to you about a box?"
The little girl nodded.
"When?"
"Outside."
"What did she say?"
Lily played with the edge of her dress.
"She said I had to give her the shiny thing if it fell out."
Mara looked at Vanessa.
"What shiny thing?"
Lily pointed at the key.
"That."
Arthur's voice became dangerously calm.
"You gave the ribbon to Lily."
Vanessa shook her head.
"No."
Mara said, "She told me you did."
"She's confused."
Lily began crying.
"I am not!"
Mara pulled her close.
Vanessa rolled her eyes.
"Wonderful."
Mara looked at her.
"What else did you tell her?"
"Nothing."
Lily buried her face against Mara.
"She said I couldn't move."
Mara felt her stomach tighten.
"What?"
"The stairs."
Vanessa stepped toward the door.
"This is ridiculous. I'm not standing here while a child invents stories."
Arthur blocked her.
"Stay."
Mara's hands began shaking.
"Lily, did Vanessa tie you somewhere?"
The child hesitated.
Then nodded.
"She said flower girls have to stay in their place."
Claire covered her mouth.
Mara stood.
"What did you do?"
Vanessa sighed.
"I tied a ribbon around her wrist for the photographs. That's all."
"You tied my daughter to a railing?"
"For five minutes."
"She's four."
"It was ribbon."
"She told you she didn't want it."
Vanessa's expression hardened.
"Your daughter is spoiled."
Mara took a step forward.
Arthur moved subtly between them.
Vanessa continued.
"She kept wandering off. I needed her to stay where the photographer could find her."
"Then you hold her hand."
"I was busy."
"You do not tie a child to a staircase."
Grant finally spoke.
"Vanessa, why would you do that?"
Mara looked at him.
He sounded annoyed.
Not horrified.
Annoyed.
Vanessa shrugged.
"I told you. She wouldn't stay still."
Claire stared at Grant.
"Say something."
"I did."
"No. Say what a father is supposed to say."
Grant glanced toward Lily.
"Obviously she shouldn't have tied her."
Mara laughed bitterly.
"Obviously."
Grant's eyes hardened.
"Don't."
Claire stepped away from him again.
Something was changing between them with every minute.
Vanessa noticed.
"This whole thing is being blown out of proportion because Mara enjoys being a victim."
Mara felt the words hit.
Vanessa pointed toward her prosthetic leg.
"Everything becomes a tragedy with her."
Arthur's head snapped toward his daughter.
"Enough."
Vanessa ignored him.
"You know what Grant's life was like after the accident? Every room he entered, people looked at him like he had done something wrong just because his wife lost a leg."
Mara stared at her.
"He was driving."
Vanessa froze.
Grant's face changed.
Arthur slowly turned.
"What?"
Mara looked from one Mercer to another.
Her pulse thundered.
Grant said, "She doesn't remember the crash."
Mara's voice shook.
"I remember more than you think."
"No, you don't."
"I remember you behind the wheel."
Grant stepped toward her.
"Mara."
"I remember rain."
"Mara."
"I remember asking you to slow down."
"Stop."
"And I remember Vanessa calling you."
Vanessa went still.
Arthur whispered, "Grant?"
Mara closed her eyes.
For three years, the memory had come only in fragments.
A wet road.
Grant's hands on the wheel.
His phone ringing.
Vanessa's voice through the speakers.
Then Grant shouting.
The car drifting.
The headlights.
The tree.
Mara opened her eyes.
"You told everyone I was driving."
Grant's face was pale.
"You were."
"No."
"Your memory is damaged."
Mara looked at Claire.
Claire was staring at Grant as though seeing him for the first time.
Then Lily spoke.
Quietly.
"Mommy?"
Mara looked down.
The child pointed toward the empty cabinet.
"There's another door."
Arthur frowned.
"What?"
Lily walked closer.
Behind the cabinet, near the floor, a thin line showed in the wood paneling.
Arthur stared at it.
His expression changed.
He knelt.
Pressed the panel.
A hidden compartment clicked open.
Inside was a small black envelope.
Not the missing box.
Something else.
Arthur pulled it out.
May you like
On the front, written in Eleanor Mercer's handwriting, were five words.
For Mara, if they lie.
