Chapter 1 - The Man Lily Bought for Christmas
The note on the coffee-shop table said, I NEED A DAD UNTIL CHRISTMAS.
CASH: $43.17.
Adrian Cole had been paid to do many ugly things in his life. Pretending
to be the father of a nine-year-old girl had never been one of them.
He sat across from Lily Parker beneath cheap paper snowflakes while
December rain streaked the windows of downtown Chicago. She wore a
private-school uniform beneath a cream cardigan, her red hair twisted
into two uneven buns. A canvas backpack rested between her shoes.
“You’re serious?” Adrian asked.
Lily pushed a glass jar toward him. Coins rattled inside.
“That’s my money.”
“I can see that.”
“Forty-three dollars and seventeen cents.”
“I counted.”
“You look expensive, but that’s all I have.”
Adrian almost smiled. “What makes you think I’m for hire?”
“You told the man outside you do problems.”
“I said I solve problems.”
“Same thing.”
“No, kid. Very different thing.”
“My name is Lily.”
“Fine. Lily. Where’s your real father?”
Her expression changed.
“Dead.”
Adrian stopped.
“And your mother?”
“Dead too.”
“Who takes care of you?”
“My uncle Brent and Aunt Meredith.”
“Then why do you need a fake dad?”
Lily glanced toward the front window.
A black SUV sat across the street.
“They’re sending me away after Christmas.”
“Where?”
“Saint Agnes.”
“Boarding school?”
She shook her head.
“A place for difficult children.”
Adrian studied her more carefully.
There was a faint yellow bruise near her wrist, partly hidden beneath
the cardigan.
“Are you difficult?”
“My aunt says I ruin everything.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
“No.”
“Why me?”
Lily opened her backpack and removed a photograph.
Adrian’s stomach tightened.
The picture showed him seven years earlier beside a man named Michael
Parker.
Lily’s father.
Michael had been an assistant district attorney. Adrian had been an
undercover investigator using a different name.
“How did you get this?”
“Daddy’s desk.”
“What did he tell you about me?”
“That if something happened to him, I should find the man with the black
ring.”
Adrian looked at the matte-black ring on his right hand.
Michael had given it to him after a case that nearly killed them both.
“What happened to your father?”
“Car accident.”
“When?”
“Last Christmas.”
The café music suddenly felt too cheerful.
Lily leaned forward.
“I don’t really need you to be my dad.”
“Good.”
“I need Uncle Brent to think you are.”
“That makes less sense.”
“My school has Family Christmas Night tomorrow. Uncle Brent says he’s
coming to sign papers.”
“What papers?”
“I don’t know.”
“And you think a stranger can stop him?”
Lily’s voice dropped.
“Daddy said you scare bad men.”
Adrian looked again at the bruise.
“Who did that?”
She pulled her sleeve down.
“Nobody.”
“Lily.”
“I fell.”
He had heard that answer from adults, witnesses, children, people who
had been taught that telling the truth cost more than lying.
Adrian pushed the jar back.
“Keep your money.”
Her face fell.
“So no?”
“I didn’t say no.”
At four that afternoon Adrian stood outside Hawthorne Academy wearing a
charcoal coat and the expression that had once made armed men reconsider
their decisions.
Lily waited beneath a wreath.
Beside her stood Brent Parker.
Brent was forty-five, broad-shouldered, expensive suit, expensive watch,
expensive smile.
His hand rested on Lily’s shoulder.
Too tightly.
Lily winced.
Adrian saw it.
Brent noticed him.
“Who are you?”
Lily spoke before Adrian could.
“My dad.”
Silence.
Brent’s fingers loosened.
“What?”
“My new dad.”
Adrian slowly removed his gloves.
“Adrian Cole.”
Brent went pale.
Recognition.
That was interesting.
“You know me?” Adrian asked.
“No.”
“You looked like you did.”
“I know the name.”
“From where?”
Brent smiled again.
“Chicago is a small town when you do business.”
Lily slipped behind Adrian.
Brent’s eyes hardened.
“She belongs with family.”
Adrian looked down at Lily.
“Does she?”
“Yes.”
Lily whispered, “Please don’t make me go.”
Brent reached for her.
Adrian stepped between them.
“No one is taking her anywhere while she’s asking me for help.”
“You have no legal authority.”
“Then call the police.”
Brent did not.
Instead he leaned close.
“You have no idea what you’re stepping into.”
Adrian replied quietly, “That sentence usually means I’m exactly where I
need to be.”
Brent walked away.
Lily exhaled.
“You’re good at this.”
“At what?”
“Being scary.”
“I wasn’t trying.”
“That’s better.”
Adrian drove her to the address listed for her guardians.
The Parker home was a limestone mansion decorated like a Christmas
catalog. White lights wrapped every tree. A wreath larger than Lily hung
above the door.
Inside, Meredith Parker waited beside the staircase.
She was elegant, blonde, and furious.
“Where have you been?”
“At school.”
“You were supposed to come straight home.”
Her gaze shifted to Adrian.
“Who is this?”
Lily swallowed.
“My dad.”
Meredith laughed.
Then she slapped Lily across the face.
The blow was sudden enough to send the child stumbling into the entry
table.
Adrian moved before he thought.
He caught Lily.
The room went silent.
Meredith stared at him.
Adrian’s voice became dangerously calm.
“Do that again.”
“What?”
“Go ahead. Show me exactly how you treat her when nobody important is
watching.”
Meredith’s confidence flickered.
Brent entered behind them.
“Get out of my house.”
Adrian looked at Lily’s cheek.
Then at the security camera above the foyer.
“Gladly.”
He took Lily’s hand.
Brent blocked the door.
“You can’t take her.”
Adrian’s phone buzzed.
A message from an old contact at family court.
The documents Brent planned to sign at the school were not enrollment
papers.
They were a petition to surrender guardianship of Lily to a residential
institution.
Attached was a medical declaration claiming she was violent, delusional,
and dangerous.
Signed by a psychiatrist.
Adrian showed Brent the screen.
“Interesting.”
Brent’s face changed.
Then Lily whispered, “That doctor never talked to me.”
Adrian looked at her.
“Never?”
“He comes to dinner with Uncle Brent.”
Upstairs, a floorboard creaked.
Everyone looked toward the landing.
A little boy stood there in Christmas pajamas.
Maybe five.
He had a bruise beneath one eye.
Lily whispered, “That’s Noah.”
Adrian asked, “Your cousin?”
She shook her head.
“No.”
“Then who is he?”
Brent shouted, “Go back to your room!”
The boy flinched so violently Adrian felt something cold settle inside
him.
May you like
Lily gripped Adrian’s hand.
“Uncle Brent says Noah doesn’t exist.”
