Chapter 2 - Callie Had Mentioned Someone Before
Reid took Callie and Maisie inside the estate’s glass conservatory before questioning anyone.
Maisie came first.
Always.
A housekeeper brought towels. Another found a dry sweater. Reid wrapped his daughter in both and sat with her while Callie disappeared briefly into the adjoining powder room to remove her soaked shoes and wring water from her hair.
Maisie was unhurt.
Cold.
Frightened.
Humiliated.
But physically safe.
Only after her breathing slowed did Reid ask:
“What happened before I came outside?”
Maisie looked toward the conservatory doors.
“Gavin was mad.”
“Why?”
“Mom told me to come stand by her.”
Reid glanced at Callie.
She had returned but stayed near the window.
“What happened before that?”
Maisie thought.
“He told Mom she didn’t belong at the family table.”
Callie looked away.
Reid felt his jaw tighten.
“What else?”
“He said I shouldn’t act like I own anything because I’m not a real Harrington.”
That stopped him.
Maisie was his daughter.
Biologically, legally, emotionally.
There was no ambiguity.
“Then?”
“Mom told him never to talk to me like that.”
Maisie’s fingers tightened around the towel.
“He pushed Mom.”
Callie finally spoke.
“Not hard.”
Reid turned.
“Don’t do that.”
She frowned.
“Do what?”
“Make it smaller before I’ve even heard it.”
Callie went quiet.
Maisie continued.
“Mom fell in the fountain.”
Reid looked back at his daughter.
“And you?”
“I tried to help her.”
Callie’s face changed.
“Maisie slipped when she reached for me. I caught her before she hit anything.”
So that was how both ended up in the water.
Gavin pushed Callie.
Maisie stepped toward her mother.
Slipped into the shallow fountain.
Callie immediately grabbed her.
Then Reid arrived.
Simple.
Ugly.
But Maisie’s statement had not referred only to tonight.
He knew because of what she said:
He did the same thing to Mommy.
Reid looked at Callie.
“What did she mean?”
Callie did not answer.
He already knew part of it.
Three months earlier, Callie had come home from another family dinner with the hem of her dress wet.
She said someone had shoved her near the estate’s smaller courtyard fountain after an argument.
Reid demanded a name.
She refused.
Not because she was protecting the person, she said.
Because she needed to know whether what happened was part of something larger first.
At the time, Reid thought she was being overly cautious.
Now he felt sick remembering that response.
“That was Gavin.”
Callie looked at him.
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I almost did.”
“That’s not an answer.”
She wrapped her arms around herself.
“Because he told me you already knew why he was doing it.”
Reid stared.
“What?”
Callie’s voice dropped.
“He said you and your brothers had agreed I needed to understand my place in this family.”
Reid felt something go cold inside him.
“I never said that.”
“I know that now.”
He looked through the conservatory glass toward Gavin, still standing outside among guests and broken crystal.
“What made you realize?”
Callie answered quietly.
“Maisie heard him say your name.”
May you like
And suddenly the mystery was no longer why Gavin had humiliated Callie.
It was why he had been using Reid’s authority to do it.
