Chapter 2 - The Mansion With No Stocking for Lily
Nathan brought Lily to his stone mansion outside Sewickley while Mae followed in another car. The house glittered with white Christmas lights, wreaths hung from every window, and a twenty-foot tree filled the entrance hall.
Lily stopped beneath it.
“Is this a hotel?”
Nathan almost smiled. “No.”
“You live here?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
He did not know how to answer.
The blonde woman introduced herself as Vanessa Cole, Nathan’s wife of six years. Her smile was flawless until Nathan looked away.
“We should call social services,” Vanessa said.
Nathan turned. “She just lost her mother.”
“Exactly. She needs professionals.”
“She needs a father.”
Vanessa’s eyes hardened.
Lily noticed.
Children always noticed what adults thought they hid.
Nathan arranged a bedroom beside his own and asked the housekeeper, Mrs. Bell, to find pajamas. Vanessa objected when Nathan ordered DNA testing.
“You’re accepting this based on one phone call?”
“I knew Sarah.”
“You knew hundreds of women.”
Nathan’s expression chilled. “Not like Sarah.”
That night Lily found the family stockings above the fireplace: NATHAN, VANESSA, and Vanessa’s sixteen-year-old son, PARKER.
There was no stocking for Lily.
She did not complain.
She cut a stocking shape from a brown grocery bag, wrote LILY in red crayon, and taped it to the mantel.
Parker found it first.
“That’s pathetic.”
Lily looked up.
He was handsome in the careless way wealthy teenagers often were, dressed in a cashmere sweater that probably cost more than everything Lily owned.
“It’s temporary,” she said.
“So are you.”
“Parker.”
Nathan stood in the doorway.
The boy rolled his eyes and left.
Nathan stared at the paper stocking.
“I’ll buy you one tomorrow.”
Lily shook her head. “Mama made ours.”
“Then maybe we make one.”
“You know how?”
“No.”
“Me neither.”
For the first time, Nathan laughed.
Across the room, Vanessa watched them.
Later that night she entered Parker’s bedroom and locked the door.
“That girl cannot stay.”
Parker looked up from his phone. “Why do you care?”
“Because if she is Nathan’s biological child, the trust changes.”
“So?”
“So your future changes.”
Parker frowned.
Vanessa sat beside him.
“Her mother disappeared eight years ago for a reason.”
Down the hallway, Lily woke thirsty and wandered toward the kitchen.
She passed Vanessa’s closed door.
Then she heard her mother’s name.
Lily stopped.
Vanessa said, “Sarah promised she would never tell Nathan about the baby.”
Parker whispered, “You knew her?”
Lily pressed both hands over her mouth.
Christmas music played softly downstairs.
May you like
And for the first time since arriving, Lily understood she had not entered a stranger’s house.
She had entered a house that already knew exactly who she was.
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