Chapter 16 - The Sound of Her Breathing
Poppy ran into the hospital room before anyone could stop her.
"Mommy!"
Elise sat propped against two pillows, a bandage visible above the collar of her hospital gown. She opened her arms. Poppy climbed carefully onto the bed and folded herself against her mother as if she could fit the missing thirty-nine days into a single hug.
"I knocked," Poppy whispered. "I knocked so hard."
"I heard you, Popsicle. I heard every tap."
"I thought you forgot me."
Elise's face crumpled. "Not for one minute. Not when I was scared. Not when I was angry. Not when I was trying to get home."
Adrian stayed in the doorway. This reunion belonged to Poppy and Elise. He watched as the girl complained about her pink shoes and showed her mother the bruise on her arm.
Elise's fingers stopped moving over Poppy's hair. "Who did that?"
"Simone pushed me. Daddy saw."
Elise looked at Adrian. He nodded. "It's documented. She's not coming near Poppy again."
Poppy finally fell asleep across Elise's lap. Adrian pulled a chair close.
"I believed the note," he said. "Not completely, but enough to stop asking the right questions. I let Simone tell me who you were."
"You had years of evidence," Elise answered quietly. "You watched me raise our daughter. You knew I showed up."
"I did."
"And you chose the easier story."
He didn't defend himself. "Yes."
Elise looked toward the window. "I don't know what forgiveness looks like yet. But I know what Poppy needs. She needs parents who tell her the truth."
"Then that's what we'll give her."
His phone buzzed with a message from Marisol. Kent's uploaded footage had been recovered. It showed Simone ordering staff to restrain Elise and move her through the service lift before guests discovered her.
May you like
The message included one line that made Adrian's hands go cold: THE RECORDING ALSO SHOWS A SECOND PERSON DIRECTING THE OPERATION.
Adrian looked at the sleeping child. The man standing beside Simone on the video was the hotel manager, Emil Hart.
