Chapter 6 - LILY'S MUSIC BOX
The music box had been cheap.
Twenty dollars, maybe thirty.
Dark wood.
Tiny brass latch.
When Lily opened it, a ballerina spun to a simple tune.
David hated the sound.
"It's creepy."
Lily would laugh.
"No, Dad."
"It's pretty."
She played it every night for weeks.
I had forgotten where it came from.
Then Nathan asked.
"Who gave it to her?"
I closed my eyes.
"A package."
"From whom?"
"I don't know."
"No return address?"
"No."
"Was there a card?"
I thought.
"Yes."
"What did it say?"
"Happy birthday."
"Anything else?"
"Initials."
"What initials?"
"T.R."
Nathan's expression changed.
"Thomas Reed."
David's former CFO.
The man everyone believed had moved to Europe.
Except he hadn't.
Thomas disappeared eighteen months earlier.
Investigators reopened the case.
Within forty-eight hours, they found his old vehicle inside a private storage facility.
Blood in the trunk.
Marcus Vale's fingerprint near the latch.
But no body.
Vale eventually admitted part of the truth.
Thomas had discovered Northstar.
David wanted him frightened.
Vale staged the disappearance of Thomas's vehicle.
But Thomas escaped before Vale could locate him.
"Alive?" Rebecca asked.
Vale nodded.
"Last I knew."
"Where?"
"No idea."
"Why did he disappear?"
"Because David would have killed him eventually."
Vale paused.
"Maybe not himself."
Rebecca stared.
"But he would have made it happen."
That afternoon, federal agents found Thomas Reed in northern Michigan living under the name Daniel Mercer.
He had a beard.
Gray hair.
Twenty fewer pounds.
And enough evidence to put David away for decades.
Thomas agreed to cooperate only after learning Lily had died.
When I met him, his hands shook.
"I'm sorry."
I didn't answer.
He looked at me.
"I heard about her."
"You sent the music box."
He closed his eyes.
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Because I needed somewhere David wouldn't look."
"You hid evidence with my daughter?"
"I hid it in the lining."
"What evidence?"
"A flash drive."
My stomach dropped.
"The music box Elliot stole."
Thomas's face went pale.
"Then he knows."
"Knows what?"
Thomas looked at Nathan.
Nathan leaned forward.
"What was on the drive?"
Thomas swallowed.
"Everything."
Northstar records.
Payments.
Fake invoices.
Bribes.
Audio.
Emails.
Copies of transfers.
And something David didn't know.
Julianne had been stealing from him.
Seventeen million dollars.
Diverted from offshore accounts.
Thomas discovered it while auditing Northstar.
"Did David know?"
"No."
"If he finds out?"
Thomas looked at me.
"He'll kill her."
I stared at him.
"David's in prison."
Thomas shook his head.
"David built a machine."
"What does that mean?"
"Drivers."
"Security."
"Accountants."
"People who don't appear on payroll."
"People like Elliot?"
Thomas nodded.
"And Elliot has the archive too?"
Thomas looked afraid.
"Maybe."
Nathan asked, "Why did you keep so many copies?"
"Because everyone was betraying everyone."
Thomas almost smiled.
"David just didn't know it."
We found the music box three days later.
Elliot had abandoned it in a parking garage.
The flash drive was gone.
But inside the box was something else.
A folded pink note.
Lily's handwriting.
I knew it immediately.
MR. REED,
THANK YOU FOR MY MUSIC BOX.
MOMMY SAYS PEOPLE WHO GIVE PRESENTS SHOULD GET THANK-YOU NOTES.
DADDY SAYS THANK-YOU NOTES ARE OLD-FASHIONED.
MOMMY IS RIGHT MORE.
LOVE,
LILY.
I laughed.
Then cried.
At the bottom, she had drawn three stick figures.
Me.
Herself.
David.
David stood far away from us.
I turned the paper over.
One sentence.
I WISH DADDY LIKED BEING HOME WITH US.
I stopped breathing.
Thomas lowered his eyes.
"She left that at my office."
"When?"
"Months ago."
"Why didn't you give it back?"
"I planned to."
I stared at the words.
Lily knew.
Not the affair.
Not the fraud.
Not the danger.
But she knew her father didn't want to be there.
Children always know more than adults think.
I folded the note carefully.
That night, I made a decision.
I requested permission to see David.
Nathan objected.
Rebecca objected.
I went anyway.
David entered the visitation room wearing prison clothes.
He looked thinner.
Older.
His face changed when he saw me.
"Maya."
I didn't sit.
He did.
I placed Lily's note against the glass.
His eyes dropped.
"What is that?"
"Read it."
He leaned forward.
His lips moved as he read.
Then stopped.
I WISH DADDY LIKED BEING HOME WITH US.
David closed his eyes.
"Where did you get that?"
"Does it matter?"
He covered his face.
"She wrote that?"
"Yes."
He started crying.
I remained standing.
"She knew."
"Maya..."
"She knew you didn't want to be home."
"That's not true."
"Then why did a seven-year-old write it?"
No answer.
"You want to know what destroyed me?"
He looked up.
"It wasn't Julianne."
"Not the money."
"Not Northstar."
"Not even the yacht."
I pressed my hand against the glass.
"It was realizing Lily spent years trying to earn your attention."
David's face twisted.
"I loved her."
"She shouldn't have had to wonder."
"I loved her."
"You keep saying that like the sentence itself fixes something."
He lowered his head.
I took out my phone.
Then played Lily's voicemail.
"Hi, Daddy."
David froze.
"It's me."
Her tiny laugh filled the room.
"Mommy says I don't have to say that because you know my voice, but I think maybe you forgot."
David's face collapsed.
"I got the tree part in the school play."
A giggle.
"I'm literally a tree."
He pressed both hands over his mouth.
"I have two lines, though."
A pause.
"Please come this time."
David broke.
His shoulders shook so hard he nearly fell forward.
"But everybody's daddy is busy."
Then her final words.
"I love you."
The voicemail ended.
David kept crying.
I waited.
Then asked, "Did you ever listen to that?"
He shook his head.
"Why?"
He couldn't answer.
"Did you delete it?"
A tiny nod.
My stomach turned.
"Without listening?"
David whispered, "I was in a meeting."
I laughed.
It was the ugliest sound I had ever made.
"Of course you were."
I stood.
He looked up desperately.
"Maya."
"What?"
His voice cracked.
"Play it again."
I stared at him.
"Please."
I thought about saying no.
Then I looked at Lily's handwriting.
I pressed play.
May you like
Again.
And for the first time in his life, David listened to his daughter from beginning to end.
