Chapter 2: The Second Phone
I didn't answer Daniel's question about Noah right away.
I just looked at him — his tan, his shopping bags, the little souvenir keychain still dangling from his fingers — and I let the silence do what five days of unanswered calls never could.
"Grace." His voice dropped.
"Where is our son?"
"He's been in the hospital since Tuesday," I said.
"Fever.
Breathing problems.
They took him straight to intensive care."
The bags slipped from his hand.
"Why didn't you — I didn't know, my phone was—"
"I called you nineteen times, Daniel."
He opened his mouth.
Closed it.
Then he did something I will never forget.
He didn't ask which hospital.
He didn't ask if Noah was okay.
He walked to the kitchen counter, picked up his regular phone — the one he claimed had died — and I watched him check it like a man looking for an exit, not a father looking for his son.
That's when I noticed the second phone.
The one that had slipped halfway out of his jacket pocket.
A number I didn't recognize was already lighting up the screen.
I recognized the name above it.
Celeste.
Daniel saw me see it.
And for the first time since he walked through that door smiling, he looked genuinely afraid.
"Grace, listen to me—"
"My attorney is already listening," I said quietly.
"He has been since Tuesday night."
---
What Grace had already set in motion before Daniel even landed — that's what changes everything.
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