Chapter 1 - THE SECOND LIE
Arthur’s promise had barely left his mouth when the little boy in the waitress’s arms whispered something that made everyone stop.
“Daddy…”
Arthur Montgomery immediately bent toward his son.
“What is it, Lucas?”
Eight-year-old Lucas stared past him.
Straight at Isabella.
His whole body tightened.
“She said you stopped looking for me.”
Arthur went still.
Behind them, the ballroom was silent.
A few minutes earlier, nearly three hundred people had been drinking champagne beneath gold chandeliers at the Montgomery Foundation gala.
Now half of them were standing near the service hallway, watching Arthur hold the son everyone had been told was missing.
Lucas’s cheeks were gray from cold.
His hands trembled.
The waitress who had pulled him through the damaged ventilation opening kept her catering jacket wrapped around his shoulders.
Arthur looked at Isabella.
“You told him that?”
Isabella lifted both hands.
“Arthur, he’s terrified. He doesn’t know what he’s saying.”
The waitress snapped before she could stop herself.
“He knows exactly what he’s saying.”
Isabella turned.
“And you are?”
The waitress gave her a hard look.
“Maya Bennett.”
“Well, Maya Bennett, you’ve already done enough.”
Maya almost laughed.
“Enough?”
“You broke into a secured service area.”
“There was a child crying behind a wall.”
“You damaged private property.”
Arthur stared at his wife.
“Isabella.”
She ignored him.
“I want her removed.”
Arthur’s corporate attorney, David Hale, stepped forward.
“I wouldn’t do that.”
Isabella’s face tightened.
David held the folder he had brought from the study.
“You may want Ms. Bennett to stay.”
Arthur looked at him.
“Why?”
David hesitated.
Then opened the folder.
“I was trying to tell you before everyone started shouting.”
Arthur’s patience disappeared.
“Then tell me now.”
David pulled out three pages.
“Two days ago, Isabella’s legal representative sent documents to the bank administering Lucas’s trust.”
Arthur frowned.
“What documents?”
David handed him the top page.
Arthur read the first line.
Then read it again.
His face changed.
“This says Lucas is dead.”
Maya looked down at the very much alive child clinging to her.
Isabella spoke quickly.
“It’s not what it looks like.”
Arthur slowly raised his eyes.
“You filed paperwork claiming my son was deceased?”
“It was preliminary.”
“Preliminary death?”
“Arthur, please.”
David continued.
“The bank questioned the documents because there was no certified death record attached.”
Arthur turned another page.
“And this?”
“A request to freeze the trust pending distribution.”
“To whom?”
David didn’t answer.
Arthur looked at him sharply.
“To whom, David?”
“The Montgomery Family Foundation.”
Arthur’s jaw tightened.
Isabella was chairwoman of that foundation.
She had pushed Arthur to appoint her six months earlier.
Arthur stared at her.
“You were trying to move Lucas’s money.”
“No.”
“Forty-six million dollars.”
“I was protecting the family.”
“From my eight-year-old son?”
Isabella lowered her voice.
“Can we please discuss this somewhere private?”
Maya felt Lucas stiffen again.
He whispered into her shoulder.
“Don’t let her take me.”
Maya tightened her arm around him.
“She’s not taking you anywhere.”
Isabella heard.
Something ugly flashed across her face.
“You have no right to make promises to him.”
Maya stared right back.
“Then maybe you shouldn’t have locked him in a wall.”
Police sirens sounded outside.
For the first time, Isabella looked frightened.
Arthur stepped closer to her.
“You said he was playing a game upstairs.”
“He was.”
“For how many days?”
Isabella said nothing.
Arthur’s voice dropped.
“For how many days, Isabella?”
Lucas answered instead.
“Four.”
Arthur turned.
Lucas held up four shaking fingers.
“Four sleeps.”
Arthur’s face crumpled.
Maya watched him fight to stay standing.
“Who fed you?”
Lucas hesitated.
“Sometimes she did.”
Arthur looked at Isabella.
“Sometimes?”
Lucas nodded.
“And sometimes the other man.”
Every adult in the hallway became still.
David frowned.
“What other man?”
Lucas looked around the room as if expecting the man to be there.
Then he whispered:
“The man Daddy calls Uncle Peter.”
Arthur stopped breathing.
Peter Sloan wasn’t Lucas’s uncle.
He was Arthur’s closest friend.
And the chief operating officer of Montgomery Holdings.
Arthur pulled out his phone.
“Call Peter.”
David already was.
The call went straight to voicemail.
Arthur tried again.
Nothing.
Then his head of security hurried into the hallway.
“Mr. Montgomery.”
Arthur turned.
“What?”
The security chief looked uneasy.
“Mr. Sloan left the estate twenty minutes ago.”
Arthur’s eyes hardened.
“Where did he go?”
“We don’t know.”
“Find out.”
The man nodded.
Then added:
“Sir… there’s something else.”
“What?”
“Mr. Sloan didn’t leave alone.”
Arthur’s hand tightened around the phone.
The security chief swallowed.
“He took your private records manager with him.”
And suddenly everyone understood.
Lucas had been found.
May you like
But the people who put him behind that wall were already running.
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