CHAPTER 3 THE LULLABY
Nathaniel stood slowly.
The melody filled the foyer through Lucas’s trembling hum.
It was only seven notes.
Simple.
Tender.
Haunting.
Nathaniel had heard it through the baby monitor hundreds of times.
Whenever Lucas cried, the melody calmed him.
Vivienne had accepted praise for creating it.
She had even allowed a famous composer to turn it into a charity anthem.
Nathaniel looked at his wife.
“You told me your mother sang that song to you.”
Vivienne’s expression hardened.
“My mother probably learned it from someone else.”
Elena shook her head.
“No one taught it to me.”
“My father created it when I was a child.”
Vivienne scoffed.
“How convenient.”
Elena looked down at Lucas.
“The second part has words.”
She began to sing softly.
“Sleep beneath the silver moon.”
“Morning always finds you soon.”
“When the dark has lost its way.”
“Mother’s love will bring the day.”
Lucas finished the final line with her.
Nathaniel’s skin turned cold.
Vivienne stepped backward.
Lucas could not have learned those words from Elena recently.
The boy had sung the same lines when he was barely old enough to speak.
Nathaniel remembered hearing them through the nursery wall.
He had once asked Vivienne what they meant.
She said they were nonsense syllables.
Now he understood why she never sang them clearly in front of him.
Elena had been in the nursery.
Not as a maid.
As the hidden woman who comforted Lucas during his first year.
Nathaniel looked at her.
“You were here before you were officially hired.”
Elena nodded.
“Vivienne brought me in through the service entrance three weeks after Lucas was born.”
“She said he was sick.”
“She told me he refused formula and cried constantly.”
“I was still recovering.”
“I believed she would let me remain near him until he was strong.”
Vivienne laughed bitterly.
“And you agreed because you were paid.”
Elena’s face tightened.
“I agreed because you threatened to send him overseas if I refused.”
Nathaniel’s eyes moved to Vivienne.
“Did you?”
“She is lying.”
Elena continued before Nathaniel could respond.
“I slept in a storage room beside the old nursery.”
“I fed Lucas.”
“I held him through fevers.”
“I sang to him every night.”
“When he was ten months old, Vivienne told me my services were no longer required.”
Nathaniel stared at her.
“You disappeared.”
“I was removed.”
Elena unbuttoned the cuff of her uniform.
A pale scar circled her left wrist.
“Two men forced me into a car.”
“They left me outside Baltimore with no phone, no identification, and a warning.”
Nathaniel’s jaw tightened.
“What warning?”
“That if I ever came near Lucas again, they would arrange an accident for him.”
Lucas buried his face against her.
Nathaniel looked toward his security chief, Marcus Reed, who had entered after hearing the commotion.
“Lock the gates.”
Vivienne spun around.
“You cannot imprison me in my own home.”
Nathaniel did not look at her.
“No one leaves until I know the truth.”
Vivienne’s eyes flashed.
“You should be careful, Nathaniel.”
“About what?”
She smiled.
It was a small, cold smile.
“About believing a woman who has already lied about why she came back.”
Elena stiffened.
Nathaniel noticed.
“What is she talking about?”
Vivienne folded her arms.
“Tell him, Elena.”
“Tell him what you found hidden inside the nursery wall.”
Elena went silent.
Nathaniel stepped toward her.
“What did you find?”
Elena glanced at Lucas.
Then she reached into the pocket of her apron.
May you like
She removed a small brass key.
“The proof that Lucas was never supposed to survive his first birthday.”
