Chapter 2 - WHO DID YOU CALL?
School security arrived before the man from the SUV introduced himself.
Two administrators came through the gate.
A security officer separated Daniel from me.
Nobody arrested anybody.
That did not mean what I had done disappeared.
Three parents had video.
The school had cameras.
Daniel's cheek was swelling.
My knuckles hurt.
The security officer looked at both of us.
“Were there any weapons?”
“No.”
Daniel answered first.
“Did either of you threaten the other?”
“No.”
I said.
Daniel looked at me.
I corrected myself.
“I told him to stay away from my son.”
The officer nodded.
“That is not what I asked.”
Fair.
Noah was taken just inside the reception office with his counselor.
I could see him through the glass.
He was safe.
That helped me act like an adult again.
The man from the SUV waited.
Eventually the officer approached him.
“Sir, your name?”
“Elliot Mercer.”
“Connection?”
“Attorney.”
“For who?”
Elliot looked at me.
“That is part of the problem.”
He was in his late fifties.
Gray at the temples.
Expensive suit.
Tired eyes.
Not someone I knew.
Daniel did.
Barely.
“Mercer?”
Elliot looked at him.
“We met once.”
“When?”
“Andrew's estate conference.”
My husband's name landed like a dropped plate.
Andrew Carter had been dead four years.
Daniel stood straighter.
“You handled the sealed instructions.”
“Yes.”
I looked between them.
“What sealed instructions?”
Neither answered fast enough.
I stepped toward Elliot.
“You said Daniel wasn't the one you called.”
“He wasn't.”
“Then who did you call?”
“You.”
I almost laughed.
“No, you didn't.”
“Yes.”
“My phone hasn't rung.”
“I called at nine-oh-eight.”
I took it out.
No missed call.
No voicemail.
Elliot gave me the number.
It was mine.
Except for one digit.
Last four of my number:
The number Elliot called:
Daniel noticed.
“Transposed.”
Elliot shook his head.
“Not by me.”
He opened an email on his phone.
A formal notice.
From what appeared to be Carter Family Office.
Updated direct contact for Claire Carter: 917-555-7184.
“That isn't my number.”
“I know that now.”
“What happened when you called?”
“A woman answered.”
My stomach tightened.
“What woman?”
“She identified herself as Claire Carter.”
Daniel looked at me.
I stared at Elliot.
“What did she say?”
“She asked whether I had Andrew's sealed removal memorandum.”
Daniel's expression changed immediately.
I noticed.
“You know what that is.”
“Yes.”
“What is it?”
“Not here.”
I stepped closer.
“Stop saying that.”
Elliot did not flinch.
“The woman told me to meet her outside Westbridge at three-fifteen. She said Noah's pickup was the only time she could get away from Rebecca without alerting anyone.”
Rebecca.
Andrew's older sister.
Trustee of Noah's inheritance trust.
Chief operating officer of Carter & Hayes.
And the person who had spent the last month asking me to help remove Daniel from any control over Noah's money.
I looked at Daniel.
“Why are you here?”
He unlocked his phone.
A message thread.
Sender name:
NOAH
My stomach dropped.
Daniel held it out.
Uncle D, I need you to come to school today. Mom won't tell me what Dad meant by Bluebird. Please don't call her first. 3:10.
I stared at it.
Noah had called Daniel “Uncle D” when he was little.
Before everything went bad.
Before I told Daniel never to approach him again.
I looked up.
“You believed this?”
Daniel's jaw tightened.
“Yes.”
“You came to my son's school because of a text.”
“From your son's account.”
“Without calling me.”
“Yes.”
“Without calling the school.”
“Yes.”
That mattered.
He knew it.
I could see it.
Then Elliot asked:
“What is Bluebird?”
Daniel looked at him.
“You don't know?”
“No.”
Daniel's face changed again.
May you like
Because apparently somebody had just used a word secret enough to bring Daniel running—
and not secret enough to stay buried.
