Chapter 2 – A BLOODSTAINED COAT AND A SECRET
“Daddy!” Lily screamed.
Gabriel looked at us, his face pale. “Run, Natalie! Take her to the safehouse!”
He threw his heavy wool coat toward us. It landed at my feet.
I didn’t think. I grabbed the coat, scooped Lily up, and ran through the kitchen to the servant’s exit.
The night air hit us like ice. I scrambled into my old Honda Civic, locked the doors, and sped away from the mansion.
Lily was shaking violently in the passenger seat. “Is Daddy going to die?”
“No,” I lied, my voice trembling. “Your dad is the strongest man I know.”
I drove to the address Gabriel had given me months ago for emergencies. A small, nondescript cabin in upstate New York.
When we got inside, I wrapped Lily in blankets. She fell asleep crying.
I sat at the kitchen table, my hands covered in Gabriel’s blood.
I picked up his heavy coat to clean it. As I did, something fell out of the inner pocket.
It was an old, faded photograph.
I picked it up, expecting a picture of Gabriel and Lily.
Instead, it was a picture of Cassandra.
She was younger, smiling, and holding a baby.
But Gabriel wasn’t in the picture. The man kissing her cheek was Raymond.
And on the back, in Cassandra’s handwriting, were the words: “Our little secret.”
My blood ran cold.
If Gabriel didn’t know about this, who was the child?
Suddenly, headlights swept across the cabin window. Someone had found us.
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