Chapter 2 — The Five Years Grace Disappeared
Chapter 2 — The Five Years Grace Disappeared
“You finally found your daughter, Nathan.”
The voice came from the darkness above the staircase.
Deep.
Calm.
Almost amused.
“Now let's see if you can keep her.”
Nathan froze.
Grace grabbed his arm.
“Don't.”
He looked at her.
“Was that my father?”
Grace's silence was answer enough.
Nathan took one step upward.
“Richard!”
Nothing.
Then the lights came back.
The hallway was empty.
No man.
No footsteps.
No open window.
Nothing.
Only Lily crying from her bedroom.
Nathan ran upstairs.
Grace followed.
He found Lily sitting on the floor beside her bed, clutching her stuffed rabbit.
“Daddy!”
Nathan dropped to his knees.
“I'm here.”
She threw herself into his arms.
He held her tightly.
Grace stood in the doorway, trembling.
Nathan looked at her over Lily's shoulder.
“Five years.”
Grace lowered her eyes.
“Tell me everything.”
They moved to the guest room.
Lily slept beside Nathan because she refused to let go of his hand.
Grace sat across from him.
For nearly a minute, she said nothing.
Then Nathan spoke.
“You didn't leave me.”
“No.”
“You didn't stop loving me.”
“No.”
“You didn't write that letter.”
“No.”
“You were forced to disappear.”
“Yes.”
“By my father.”
“Yes.”
Nathan looked down at Lily.
“Then tell me what happened.”
Grace took a breath.
“It started the night I found out I was pregnant.”
Five years earlier…
Grace remembered the rain.
It had been falling for hours.
She stood outside Nathan's apartment holding a small envelope.
Inside was a pregnancy test.
Positive.
She had stared at those two lines for almost twenty minutes.
She was terrified.
But underneath the fear was happiness.
She wanted Nathan to be the first person to know.
She knocked.
No answer.
She called him.
His phone went straight to voicemail.
She smiled nervously.
“Probably at work.”
She decided to wait.
Then a black sedan stopped across the street.
Grace recognized the driver.
Richard Cole's driver.
The passenger door opened.
Richard stepped out.
Grace's smile disappeared.
“Mr. Cole?”
He walked toward her.
“You need to come with me.”
“Why?”
“We need to talk.”
“I can call Nathan.”
“No.”
Richard's voice was quiet.
“You cannot.”
Grace immediately felt something was wrong.
“I'd rather speak to Nathan.”
“You won't be speaking to Nathan tonight.”
“Why?”
Richard looked at the envelope in her hand.
“Because I know what is inside.”
Grace's blood went cold.
He knew.
Richard took her to a private office.
He didn't threaten her immediately.
That made it worse.
He offered tea.
Asked whether she was comfortable.
Then placed a folder on the table.
Inside were photographs.
Grace at work.
Grace entering Nathan's apartment.
Grace buying groceries.
Grace walking alone.
Then one photograph of Nathan.
Standing beside Victoria.
At a charity event.
Victoria's hand was resting on his arm.
Grace's stomach tightened.
“What is this?”
“Your future.”
“My future?”
“You and Nathan will not have one.”
Grace stared at him.
“You don't get to decide that.”
Richard smiled.
“I already did.”
He opened another file.
Bank statements.
Company documents.
Legal agreements.
Everything connected to Nathan.
Grace didn't understand.
“Why are you showing me this?”
“Because Nathan is about to lose everything.”
She looked at him.
“What?”
“The company is overleveraged.”
“That can't be true.”
“It is.”
“You're lying.”
Richard pushed another document toward her.
“Your boyfriend has debts he doesn't know about.”
Grace scanned the numbers.
Millions.
Her hands shook.
“What does this have to do with me?”
Richard leaned back.
“You are the reason he will refuse to sign.”
“What?”
“If you stay with him, Nathan will choose you.”
Grace stared.
“And if he chooses me?”
“I will destroy him.”
Grace stood.
“I don't believe you.”
Richard didn't stop her.
“Go ahead.”
She reached the door.
Then he said:
“Your pregnancy will make it worse.”
Grace froze.
“You know?”
“I know everything.”
She slowly turned.
“What do you want?”
“Disappear.”
Grace's heart pounded.
“For how long?”
“Forever.”
“No.”
“Then Nathan loses his company.”
“No.”
“And your child grows up watching his father be destroyed.”
Grace shook her head.
“You wouldn't.”
Richard's expression remained calm.
“Wouldn't I?”
He opened a final folder.
Inside was a photograph of Grace's mother.
Walking into her house.
Another photograph showed her younger brother.
Leaving school.
Another showed her aunt.
At a supermarket.
Richard looked at Grace.
“You have people you love.”
Grace felt sick.
“Leave them out of this.”
“I will.”
He closed the folder.
“If you disappear.”
Grace returned home that night.
She didn't sleep.
She sat on the floor beside her bed.
The pregnancy test lay in her hand.
She stared at it.
Then at Nathan's photograph.
She whispered:
“What am I supposed to do?”
The next morning, Nathan arrived.
He looked exhausted.
But the moment he saw her, he smiled.
“I've been looking everywhere.”
Grace almost cried.
“I need to tell you something.”
“What?”
She couldn't.
Not yet.
Richard had made sure she was afraid.
So she lied.
“I've been sick.”
Nathan touched her forehead.
“You should have called me.”
“I know.”
“Come here.”
He hugged her.
Grace buried her face against his chest.
She wanted to tell him.
She wanted to say:
I'm pregnant.
Instead she whispered:
“I love you.”
Nathan smiled.
“I love you too.”
For the next three weeks, Grace lived in two worlds.
In one, she was Nathan's girlfriend.
In the other, she was being watched.
Every time she left home, someone followed her.
Every time she called Nathan, another call came afterward.
Every message she sent him mysteriously disappeared.
Then one afternoon, Richard came again.
This time, he brought Victoria.
Grace stared at her.
“What is she doing here?”
Victoria looked uncomfortable.
Richard answered.
“She needs to understand what will happen.”
Victoria lowered her eyes.
Grace realized then.
Victoria wasn't the mastermind.
She was another piece on Richard's board.
“Did you know about my pregnancy?”
Victoria swallowed.
“Yes.”
Grace stared at her.
“How?”
“Your father-in-law told me.”
“My father-in-law?”
“Yes.”
“And you agreed to marry Nathan anyway?”
Victoria began crying.
“I was told you would never come back.”
Grace looked at Richard.
He smiled.
“You see?”
“You're all monsters.”
Richard's expression hardened.
“No.”
He stepped closer.
“We are protecting the family.”
Grace looked down at her stomach.
She placed one hand over it.
“This child is family.”
Richard's eyes narrowed.
“Not if you give birth to her outside the Cole bloodline.”
Grace didn't understand.
“What does that mean?”
“You don't know what your child carries.”
That sentence haunted her.
What could Lily possibly carry?
She was only a baby.
Richard refused to explain.
Instead, he gave Grace another ultimatum.
“You have forty-eight hours.”
“For what?”
“Leave.”
“And Nathan?”
“Tell him you stopped loving him.”
“I won't.”
“Then I will make sure he believes it.”
Grace decided to fight.
She went to Nathan.
She told him she was pregnant.
Nathan stared at her for several seconds.
Then his face transformed.
“You're serious?”
She nodded.
He laughed.
Then he picked her up.
Grace cried.
He kissed her forehead.
“We're having a baby.”
For one perfect moment…
everything was okay.
Then Nathan's phone rang.
His father's name appeared.
Nathan answered.
“What?”
Grace watched his expression change.
“What do you mean the company accounts are frozen?”
Grace's heart sank.
Richard had begun.
The next morning, Nathan was summoned to the board.
By evening, he had lost control of three subsidiaries.
By midnight, two investors had withdrawn.
The following day, a lawsuit was filed.
Nathan came home exhausted.
Grace watched him from the kitchen.
“Tell me the truth.”
“What?”
“Are you going to lose everything?”
Nathan didn't answer.
She knew.
Richard had been telling the truth.
But there was something worse.
Nathan still didn't know why.
Grace couldn't tell him.
Not without risking his life.
So she made the decision that would destroy both of them.
She told him she wanted to leave.
Nathan stared at her.
“What?”
“I can't do this.”
“Do what?”
“Us.”
He laughed.
“Grace, we're having a baby.”
“I know.”
“Then why are you saying this?”
“I don't love you anymore.”
The lie nearly killed her.
Nathan's face changed.
“Say that again.”
“I don't love you.”
He stared.
“You don't mean that.”
“I do.”
“Why?”
“Because I realized this isn't the life I want.”
“You're pregnant.”
“I know.”
“You're carrying my child.”
“I know.”
“Then why?”
Grace forced herself to look cold.
“Because I don't want to marry you.”
Nathan stepped back.
“You're leaving?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“I don't know.”
“Grace.”
She picked up her bag.
“Don't follow me.”
He grabbed her hand.
“Please.”
She looked into his eyes.
For one second, she almost confessed everything.
Then she remembered her mother's photograph.
Her brother.
The threats.
The company.
And Richard's promise.
She pulled her hand away.
“Goodbye, Nathan.”
That night, she disappeared.
Richard's men took her to a safe house.
She wasn't imprisoned.
That would have been easier.
Instead, she was given a phone with one number.
A bank card.
A new identity.
And one rule.
Never contact Nathan.
For months, Grace obeyed.
She gave birth to Lily alone.
Nathan didn't know.
The first time she held her daughter, she cried.
“She has your eyes.”
A nurse smiled.
“Her father?”
Grace looked away.
“He doesn't know she exists.”
But Richard wasn't finished.
Three days after Lily's birth, a lawyer arrived.
He brought a document.
A custody agreement.
Grace refused to sign.
Richard called.
“You have until tomorrow.”
“No.”
“You don't understand.”
“I understand perfectly.”
“You will give up the child.”
“Never.”
“Then Nathan will never know she exists.”
Grace's voice shook.
“You can't keep him from his daughter forever.”
Richard laughed.
“I can.”
Grace ran.
She took Lily and disappeared.
For the first time, she broke Richard's rules.
She moved from city to city.
Small apartments.
Cheap hotels.
Temporary jobs.
She changed phone numbers.
She never used her real name.
She never posted photographs.
She avoided hospitals whenever possible.
She became a ghost.
But every night, she looked at Lily.
And wondered whether she had made the right decision.
Five years passed.
Nathan believed she had abandoned him.
Grace believed she had protected him.
And Lily grew up asking one question.
“Where is my daddy?”
Grace always answered:
“Someday, sweetheart.”
She never knew that someday would come because Victoria would raise a hockey stick.
She never knew that Nathan would walk through the door.
She never knew the secret would finally explode.
Back in the present, Grace finished her story.
Nathan sat motionless.
“You did all that alone?”
Grace nodded.
“You raised Lily alone?”
“Yes.”
“You never stopped loving me?”
“No.”
Nathan looked away.
Tears filled his eyes.
“Why didn't you come back after my father lost control?”
“Because he never lost control.”
“What?”
“He was still watching.”
Nathan's expression hardened.
“Where is he now?”
“I don't know.”
“You heard him tonight.”
Grace nodded.
“I know.”
“Then he knows Lily is here.”
“Yes.”
Nathan looked at his daughter sleeping peacefully.
“He's going to come for her.”
Grace whispered:
“Yes.”
Nathan stood.
“Then he can come.”
Grace stared at him.
“What are you doing?”
“For five years, you protected our daughter alone.”
He looked at her.
“You don't have to anymore.”
Grace began crying.
Nathan continued:
“I don't care what my father owns.”
“I don't care what he threatens.”
“I don't care if he destroys the company.”
“I don't care if he takes every dollar.”
He walked toward Lily's room.
“I lost five years with my daughter.”
He looked back at Grace.
“I won't lose another night.”
The next morning, Nathan called an emergency meeting.
Every executive at Cole Holdings received the same message.
Nathan Cole is taking full personal control of the family security operation.
His father responded within minutes.
One sentence.
You have no idea what you're protecting.
Nathan stared at the message.
Then another arrived.
A photograph.
Lily walking beside Grace.
Taken that morning.
Nathan's blood ran cold.
Someone had been watching them.
Underneath the photograph was a message:
Ask Grace what happened at Saint Mary's Hospital.
Nathan turned toward Grace.
She had gone pale.
“What is Saint Mary's?”
Grace said nothing.
“Grace.”
She closed her eyes.
“The night Lily was born.”
“What happened there?”
Grace whispered:
“Your father wasn't the only person waiting for us.”
Nathan's heart pounded.
“Who was?”
Grace looked at him.
“Someone who wanted Lily before she was even born.”
“Who?”
Grace's lips trembled.
“I never learned his name.”
She looked toward the window.
“But I know what he wanted.”
“What?”
She whispered:
“He wanted your daughter dead.”
Nathan's face went cold.
And somewhere outside the house…
a black car stopped.
A man stepped out.
He looked up at the second-floor window.
Then smiled.
May you like
Because after five years…
he had finally found them.
