Chapter 3: What Patty Didn't Say
Her name was Patty Gruber, and she had worked the diner counter for nineteen years without a single day of drama.
Until now.
"Patty." I kept my voice low.
Eli was still stacking his blocks three feet away.
"What did you tell that man?"
She wiped the counter in a slow circle, not meeting my eyes.
"I told him I didn't recognize anybody."
I exhaled.
"But Nora—" She stopped wiping.
"He left a card.
He said there's a reward.
Fifty thousand dollars for information leading to her whereabouts." She finally looked at me.
"That's a lot of money for a small town."
I picked Eli up off the floor.
He wrapped both arms around my neck without being asked, the way he always did when he sensed something shift in me.
"I need to leave early today," I said.
"Nora, what is going on?
Who are you?"
"I'm nobody," I said.
"I'm exactly who I told you I was."
I carried Eli out the back door.
The black SUV was parked at the far end of Main Street.
Still running.
The driver was on a phone call, facing away from us.
I cut through the alley behind the hardware store, kept my head down, and didn't stop walking until we reached the small blue house on Birch Lane that had been our home for three and a half years.
Inside, I locked both deadbolts and stood with my back against the door.
Eli looked up at me from the kitchen floor.
"Mama, you forgot my blocks."
"We'll get new ones, baby."
"Why?"
I crouched down to his level.
He had Damon's eyes, yes.
But his expression — the way he tilted his head and waited patiently for an honest answer — that was something he had built entirely on his own.
"Because sometimes we have to leave things behind," I said.
"And that's okay."
He thought about this for a moment.
"Okay," he said, and went to find his toy trucks.
I sat at the kitchen table and tried to think clearly.
Fifty thousand dollars.
A reward that size meant Damon wasn't sending a casual inquiry.
He had been searching — seriously, systematically — and he was close enough now that his people were walking the streets of a town with fewer than two thousand residents.
I thought about running again.
I had done it once.
I could do it again.
Then my phone buzzed on the table.
A local number I didn't recognize.
I let it ring.
It rang again immediately.
I answered.
"Nora Ellis." The voice was male, professional, unhurried.
"My name is Carter Reid.
I work for Damon Vale.
I want you to know that Mr.
Vale is not here to cause you harm.
He simply wants to talk."
I said nothing.
"I'm also going to be honest with you," Carter continued.
"We know you're in Birch Falls.
We've known since yesterday morning.
Mr.
Vale asked me to call before we knocked on your door, as a courtesy."
My hand tightened around the phone.
"He could have sent police.
He could have sent lawyers.
He sent me, alone, with a phone call.
That should tell you something."
"It tells me he's strategic," I said.
A pause.
"He'd like to meet.
Tomorrow morning.
Neutral location, your choice.
You can bring anyone you want."
I looked at Eli through the kitchen doorway.
He was pushing a red truck across the floor, making engine sounds under his breath.
"I'll think about it," I said.
"Of course." Another pause, shorter this time.
"He doesn't know about the boy, Ms.
Ellis.
But I do.
And I think you already know that changes everything."
The line went quiet.
I set the phone face-down on the table and did not move for a long time.
He didn't know about Eli yet.
May you like
But Carter did.
And Carter worked for Damon.
