“Strict orders from your father,” he said now.
Damn it!“He’s not my father and he’s keeping me here,” I shouted far too loudly, realizing how crazy that sounded.
“Mr. Hampton said you would say something like that. Go to sleep, Miss Hampton. You’re sick. You need to get better.”
I felt like I was going to lose it. “I have proof. I’ll slip it under the door so you can…”
The elevator dinged. “Is she awake? Did she ask you to let her out, Mr. Cox?”Dad! Oh no!
I turned immediately and fled up the stairs to the gallery. What was I going to do now? Put the papers back under my mattress and pretend I was asleep?
Don’t be naive! Mr. Cox will tell him what you said! Dad will know you have some evidence, one way or another.
I ran into his study. The windows there faced Greenwich Street where Isaac’s accomplices were supposedly hanging around. It was definitely not Billy and Maury as I first suspected, but Nathan and Ian.
Nathan and Ian. They had to be down there now! I locked myself in, tilted the window, and started frantically throwing the printouts out. However, they flapped wildly in the wind, not sailing down immediately as I had hoped.
I had to weigh them down.
I glanced around the study, but there was nothing except paperweights, Ming vases, books, scissors, glue, and pens. Okay, pens would be good, I wouldn’t kill anyone with them. However, there were only three ballpoint pens without clips. And the stupid inkwell with the even stupider porcupine quill as a fountain pen.
Damn!
I didn’t have a cord either! I wanted to scream! Downstairs, I heard Dad talking to Mr. Cox. What should I do?
I instinctively reached for Nathan’s bracelet like I always did when I needed support. I looked at the rough band. At the gatein Louisiana, I had thought it could definitely bear my whole weight without breaking. Now it had to bear a weight, but not mine, and yet so much depended on it.
I frantically went through the documents, picked out five that seemed particularly important to me, and put the paternity test on top. My eyes fell on the last line.
The DNA sequences do not match. Paternity is 100 percent ruled out.
I took a deep breath, pushing down the emotions that were rising inside me again, and then took the scissors and cut Nathan’s bracelet. His beautiful bracelet without any glitter. Shakily, I tied it around the papers that I had rolled up. With the ribbon, it would be heavy enough to fall, but I didn’t want to take more than six documents just in case they weren’t found. Then there would be the other papers as evidence.
Please, please work!
I stretched my arm as far as I could through the window crack and let the roll fall.
Do you want it back, Will, I heard Nathan ask inside me.
I swallowed, staring out into the night and then I heard Dad calling, “Willa? Where are you?”
I immediately ran to the safe and typed in the code. The softclicksounded. Thank God he hadn’t changed the code yet! Either he hadn’t thought about it or he hadn’t expected me to be back on my feet so quickly. He had probably assumed I’d be asleep until tomorrow morning.
But why was the gun still here? Without thinking, I grabbed it and gathered up the letters. Did I need anything else? I peered into the safe for a moment, blinking thoughtfully…then I hurried back to the window and stuffed the letters through the open gapas well. The more papers rained down on New York, the better. The more likely someone would wonder why.
When I heard footsteps, I paused at the window. The handle turned, but luckily, I had locked it.
“Open the door, Willa Rae, or I’ll break it down,” Dad said from outside.
Oh, God!He sounded so calm. My mind was racing. I didn’t know what to do, so I automatically picked up the gun that I had briefly set on the desk.
Was it loaded? “Wait, Dad!” I frantically fumbled with the handle of the Glock where the magazine was and ejected it after a few seconds. Then I pulled the slide. There was a bullet in the chamber. I hastily removed it and removed the other bullets from the magazine before pushing it back in. Nathan had always had great respect for guns, even banning them on the Agamemnon and Lost Memories. And no matter what had happened, I didn’t want to point a loaded gun at Dad! It was only meant to be a form of protection.
With shaking hands, I put the ammunition in my pocket.
And what if he gets a gun from his gun cabinet?
For heaven’s sake, what was I thinking?
