Chapter 2
Sadie developed a fever that night.
Nothing serious.
The pediatrician believed it was partly from being chilled and partly from exhaustion.
Alistair remained beside her bed until almost four in the morning.
Daphne sat in the chair near the window.
Sadie slept with one hand curled around the edge of her blanket.
Alistair looked at Daphne.
“How long?”
She knew what he meant.
Daphne hesitated.
“That was the first time I saw Corinne pour anything on her.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
Daphne lowered her eyes.
Alistair felt anger rising.
Then deliberately pushed it down.
Daphne was not the person who deserved it.
“How long has Sadie been afraid of her?”
“A few months.”
His jaw tightened.
“And you didn’t tell me?”
“I tried.”
“When?”
“Three times.”
Alistair looked at her.
Daphne reminded him.
Once after Corinne punished Sadie for refusing to remove Elena’s photograph from her bedside table.
Once after Corinne insisted Daphne stop telling stories about Elena.
And once after Sadie began crying whenever wedding plans were discussed.
Alistair remembered all three conversations.
He also remembered dismissing all three.
Corinne had told him Daphne was struggling with the idea of another woman joining the family.
Alistair believed her.
Daphne had known Elena since they were teenagers. She started helping with Sadie after the child was born with a spinal condition that limited her mobility, then became Sadie’s full-time caregiver after Elena died.
Alistair had assumed grief was making her territorial.
Now that assumption disgusted him.
“Why did she want Elena’s photograph removed?”
Daphne looked toward the sleeping child.
“Corinne said Sadie needed to stop treating a dead woman like the only mother she could ever have.”
Alistair’s expression hardened.
“What did you say?”
“That Elena is her mother whether Corinne likes it or not.”
“And?”
“She tried to fire me.”
Alistair looked at her sharply.
“When?”
“Six weeks ago.”
“She has no authority to fire you.”
“I know.”
“Why didn’t you call me?”
Daphne gave him a tired look.
“I did.”
He remembered a voicemail.
Corinne had been sitting beside him when it arrived.
She told him Daphne was upset because they were discussing changing household responsibilities after the wedding.
Alistair never returned the call.
That failure belonged to him.
Daphne reached into her handbag.
“There’s something else.”
She removed a folded sheet of paper.
A household staffing plan Corinne had drafted for after the wedding.
Daphne’s name appeared under:
Thirty-day transition / separation from household.
Alistair read it twice.
“Did she show this to you?”
“I found it on the printer.”
“Who approved it?”
“No one.”
Alistair looked toward Sadie.
Corinne had not only been trying to make a child call her Mom.
She had been preparing to remove the adult who remembered Sadie’s real mother best.
May you like
That did not explain Elena’s missing nine hours.
But it gave Corinne a reason to fear Daphne staying close.
