Chapter 2 - SIX STOLEN YEARS
Six years earlier, Grace had believed she possessed everything a person could ever need.
She had a beautiful home.
She had a husband she loved.
Most importantly, she had a two-year-old daughter who filled every room with laughter.
Lily used to climb into Grace’s bed before sunrise.
She would place her tiny hands on Grace’s cheeks and whisper that morning had arrived.
Grace remembered every detail.
She remembered Lily’s strawberry shampoo.
She remembered the yellow pajamas covered with tiny moons.
She remembered the way Lily mispronounced the word spaghetti.
Those memories had kept Grace alive inside the clinic.
At the time, Nathan was building Holloway Technologies into one of the largest security companies in the country.
He worked late almost every night.
Grace often ate dinner alone with Lily.
That was when Olivia began visiting more frequently.
Olivia offered to help.
She picked Lily up from preschool.
She bought groceries.
She stayed whenever Grace felt exhausted.
Grace believed her sister was rescuing her.
She did not realize Olivia was studying her.
After Lily’s birth, Grace had struggled with anxiety.
Some nights, she could not sleep.
She constantly checked Lily’s breathing.
She worried about accidents that had never happened.
Olivia encouraged her to see Dr. Marcus Mercer.
He was calm, respected, and recommended by their father, Charles Bennett.
Dr. Mercer prescribed Grace medication.
The pills made her dizzy.
They blurred her memories.
Whenever Grace complained, Olivia told Nathan that the symptoms were signs of worsening mental illness.
Nathan believed her.
He was too busy to attend most appointments.
Grace began losing entire hours.
She would wake in unfamiliar rooms.
Objects appeared in strange places.
One morning, she found a kitchen knife beneath Lily’s pillow.
Grace screamed.
Olivia rushed into the room and removed it.
Nathan arrived moments later.
He saw Grace crying beside the bed.
He saw Olivia holding the knife.
He never asked who had placed it there.
That evening, Olivia told him Grace had become dangerous.
Nathan refused to believe it at first.
But then videos began appearing.
One showed Grace shouting at Lily.
Another showed her throwing a glass across the living room.
A third showed her standing over Nathan while he slept with a pair of scissors in her hand.
Grace remembered none of it.
She begged Nathan to believe the videos had been manipulated.
Nathan held her while she cried.
He promised they would find help.
The following morning, two men from St. Augustine Behavioral Center arrived.
Grace was told she would remain there for three days.
She kissed Lily goodbye.
She promised to return before Friday.
Friday became a week.
The week became a month.
Whenever Grace asked to call Nathan, the staff said he had refused contact.
Whenever she asked about Lily, they increased her medication.
After three months, Olivia visited.
She stood on the other side of a glass wall.
Grace ran toward her.
“Where is Lily?”
Olivia smiled.
“She’s beginning to forget you.”
Grace slammed her palms against the glass.
“You’re lying.”
“Nathan thinks you tried to kill him.”
“I would never hurt him.”
Olivia leaned closer.
“He signed the permanent commitment papers.”
Grace stopped breathing.
Olivia placed a hand against the glass.
“You should have appreciated what you had.”
Then she walked away.
Grace spent four years inside that clinic.
When she finally escaped with help from a nurse, she learned that the world believed she had died in a fire.
There was a death certificate bearing her name.
There was an empty grave in the family cemetery.
Nathan had mourned her.
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Lily had grown up believing her mother was dead.
And Olivia had stepped into every empty space Grace left behind.
