Fortune

Several people turned, and Claire averted her face. The last thing she needed was to have a roomful of people able to confirm having seen her.

“Please, leave me alone.”

“Aw, come on.” The woman swayed. “Tell my fortune. I need to know if that big stud over there is gonna take me home tonight.” She laughed and winked at Claire. “I could use a little premonition, you know.”

That’s precognition, Claire wanted to shout. Instead, she leaned closer to the drunken woman. “Leave here, now,” she whispered. “I see something terrible happening to you here.”

The woman paled. “Here?”

“Yes. You must hurry. Tell no one you saw me.”

The woman backed away, eyes wide.

“And don’t drive drunk,” Claire added, “just in case I’m wrong about where I see the terrible thing happening.”

“I live just around the corner.”

“Good. Go. Now!”

The woman turned and ran, stumbling, bumping into people, earning their glances of amused disgust. Feeling almost sorry for the woman, Claire went to the phone. She hated doing that, but she couldn’t chance the woman making a scene.

A stool was positioned in front of the phone; Claire moved it out of the way and after depositing a fistful of change, she dialed. Dorothy answered on the third ring.

“Dot, it’s me. Madeline.”

“Madeline? Thank God! I’ve been hoping and praying you’d call. You must come home. You must! If you do, I know he’ll go easier on you. I know he will.”

Claire’s stomach sank. She knew the answer to her next question, but she asked it anyway. She had to. “What’s happened?”

“He’s found you.”

A squeak of terror raced to her lips. Claire’s knees gave and she sank to the stool.

“Tonight, we all had dinner at the Astor Street house. Pierce was positively preening. He told us that a private investigator had found you. He said that within twenty-four hours Grace would be returned to the family and to Monarch’s, where she belonged. He said you were so close he could smell your stench.”

Claire squeezed her eyes shut, battling for breath. It was her every nightmare coming true; her every fear being realized.

“There’s more. He said he has everything in place and that you’re going to pay for what you did. That you deserved whatever you got.” Dot’s voice rose to a hysterical pitch. “He said you would never see Grace again. Never! I tried to reason with him, but he wouldn’t listen.”

Claire bowed her head, paralyzed by what she was hearing. The monstrous dark bird was almost upon them. She had been right. She should have trusted her premonitions and gone, weeks ago.

“It’s my fault, Madeline. All my fault. I didn’t mean to hurt you or Grace. I really didn’t. I only wanted you and Grace home, where you belong. I thought Pierce would bring you home and we’d all be a family again. It’s all I wanted.”

Dorothy’s words registered, and Claire straightened. “What are you saying? You didn’t know where I was. You didn’t—”

“Your last call, about the paper. Since you’d seen an article about the benefit, I figured you must be somewhere in the Philadelphia area. Then, while you were talking, someone yelled at you and I…I…”

Now Claire remembered. While she had been talking, a man had wanted to use the phone. He had been loud and insistent. He had called her carnival scum. How could she have been so stupid?

“I thought I would help all of us,” Dorothy continued. “I never believed Pierce would carry through on his threats, after all you’re Grace’s mother. She needs you and I…I…” Her voice trailed off miserably. “Come home, Madeline. Please.”

“How could you, Dorothy?” she whispered. “You know why I ran. I told you about Griffen. I told you what he…did. He means Grace harm, he—”

“You’re wrong about him, Madeline. You always were. He’s grown up, going off to college in a few weeks. He’s responsible and so handsome. Girls love him, Maddie. If what you thought was true, do you think girls would flock around him the way they do? Please, just come home. It’s not too late. I’m sure, if you did return of your own free will, Pierce and Adam would forgive and forget. Grace belongs here, with her family. With Monarch’s.”

Claire only half heard the last, her mind racing, scrambling to think of a way out of this, a way to escape.

“Madeline? Are you still—”

“Does he have pictures of Grace?” she asked, interrupting, a thought occurring to her.

“What? I don’t—”

“Does he know what Grace looks like?” Claire gripped the receiver tighter. “Does he?”

“I don’t think so. Because Griffen asked. He wanted to know what she looked like and Pierce said he didn’t. But why do you—”

“Griffen,” Claire interrupted, cold racing over her. “He was at dinner.”

“Of course.”

The line crackled. “He said he’s anxious to have his sister back. He’s been waiting for her, he said. He loves her, Madeline. He could never hurt her, he—”

Claire hung up the phone, her world crumbling around her. She never should have trusted Dorothy, she was given to fits of emotionalism and poor judgment. And she was a Monarch, after all. To her, the family and the family business were everything. Everything.

And Dorothy, like everyone else, hadn’t believed her. She hadn’t seen Griffen’s obsession as dangerous; she hadn’t witnessed the scene in the playroom; she hadn’t seen Grif-fen’s expression as he hurt Grace.

It had been like looking into the face of pure evil.

Claire began to shake. Pierce was close. So close he could “smell” her. They would take Skye away from her. Easily. She might even go to jail. She probably would.

Who would protect her baby then? Her head filled with the image of what she had stumbled upon all those years ago. Griffen holding Grace down, his hand over her mouth to silence her cries for help. His other hand up her dress. Inside her underwear. Touching her, violating her.

Claire brought a fist to her mouth, holding back her sound of horror. Griffen had not changed. She knew he had not. Dorothy’s words had said it all—he was anxious to have his sister back. He had been waiting for her.

She had to run. They had to run.

But they would be looking for her. Claire dropped her head into her hands. Except for her hair color and cut, she had changed little in the seven years she had been gone. And although Skye looked completely different, they would recognize them together. They would be looking for a mother and daughter—her and a daughter.

Together, because of her, they would recognize Skye. But apart…

If she left Skye, if she went on without her, Skye would be safer.

Claire shook her head, not believing what she was thinking. She couldn’t leave Skye. How could she live without her baby, even if only for a few weeks.

But if Pierce got her, she would never see her again.

Susan. The image of her oldest friend popped into her head. Though as different as two people could be, they had been as close as sisters, growing up. From the first grade on, they had seen each other through both triumphs and heartaches, through the upheavals of youth and the giddy fears of early adulthood.