The Child Upstairs
Chapter 10 - The Child Upstairs
The child upstairs did not scream.
That frightened Natalie more than a scream would have.
A scream meant a child still expected the world to answer. Silence meant she had already learned to make herself small.
Natalie moved toward the stairs with Mara behind her.
Another floorboard creaked.
A small voice said, “I didn’t touch anything.”
Natalie stopped halfway up.
“Good rule,” she said gently. “Not touching strange things keeps you smarter than most adults in this house.”
Silence.
Raymond stood at the bottom of the stairs, pale, one hand gripping the banister.
“Who is she?” Natalie asked without looking back.
“Lily Ward,” he said. “Ellie’s younger half sister. Sloan’s daughter. Vivian hid her after Ellie ran.”
Mara’s face hardened.
Natalie looked up the stairs again.
“Lily, my name is Natalie. I’m here with Agent Keene. Ruth Alvarez is downstairs, and she has cheese crackers in her purse even when she pretends she doesn’t.”
From below, Ruth called, “I heard that.”
A tiny sniff came from upstairs.
“Are they peanut butter?”
“Cheese,” Ruth said. “But good cheese.”
A door opened.
At the top of the stairs stood a girl of about nine with brown hair cut unevenly at her shoulders, gray eyes, red sweatshirt, cat socks, and a stuffed rabbit missing one ear.
Natalie felt something inside her go soft and fierce at once.
“Hi,” she said.
Lily looked past her. “Is Mrs. Mercer mad?”
“No.”
The child did not believe her.
“Is Mr. Raymond dead?”
Raymond made a sound downstairs.
Natalie kept her eyes on Lily. “No.”
“Mrs. Mercer said he was.”
“A lot of wrong things were said today.”
Lily considered that with the solemnity of children who have learned adults lie in nicer voices than cartoons.
Natalie held out her hand, palm up, not reaching.
Lily did not take it.
Instead she placed the one-eared rabbit in Natalie’s palm.
“Can you carry him? He’s tired.”
Natalie held the rabbit as carefully as classified evidence.
“Absolutely.”
Downstairs, Lily saw Lydia and froze.
Lydia stopped herself from rushing forward. Her hands remained open at her sides.
“Hi, Lily,” she said. “I’m Lydia.”
Lily stared. “You look like Ellie.”
“Ellie is my daughter.”
“Is she okay?”
Mara answered. “She’s safe.”
Lily nodded, and only then did Natalie see how long that question had been living in her body.
Raymond sat at the kitchen table now, too weak to stand. Lily looked at him with confusion.
“You’re not dead.”
“No,” Raymond said gently.
“Mrs. Mercer cried.”
“I’m sure she did.”
Lily frowned. “Does that mean she lied?”
Natalie crouched.
“It means grown-ups made a very big mess. You are not responsible for understanding all of it tonight.”
Lily nodded slowly, then whispered, “Can I call Ellie?”
“Soon,” Mara said.
Headlights swept across the kitchen window.
Agents called from outside.
“FBI! Show your hands!”
The front door opened.
Vivian Mercer stood on the porch in her black silk dress and raincoat, mascara streaked for the first time Natalie had ever seen. Her hands were visible. Her face was bare of strategy.
She looked at Lily.
Then Raymond.
Then Natalie.
“I came to surrender,” Vivian said.
No one moved.
Vivian’s eyes filled.
“But before they take me, you need to know who asked Sloan to choose your family first.”
Raymond’s face went gray.
Vivian whispered one name.
“Alden Mercer.”
Natalie knew the portrait in the dining room. Her grandfather with one hand tucked into his suit coat, painted eyes too bright.
Raymond sat down hard.
May you like
Vivian looked at Natalie with terrible exhaustion.
“Your father’s father built the first door,” she said. “I only learned how to lock it.”
