Chapter 2
Adrian did not confront Chloe at the zoo.
Every instinct in him wanted to.
He wanted to take her phone, demand the name behind the message, ask how long she had known Jonah Price, and force her to say out loud why his seven-year-old daughter had been pushed toward a tiger.
Instead, he listened to the security supervisor.
"If there is another person involved," Paul Brennan said, "we need them to believe we don't know that yet."
Adrian hated the logic.
He hated everything about the situation.
But he understood it.
So when Chloe entered the clinic ten minutes later, he made his face tired instead of furious.
"How is she?" Chloe asked.
Emma immediately slid closer to Adrian.
He felt it.
Chloe saw it.
"She's okay," Adrian said.
"Thank God."
Chloe pressed a hand to her chest.
"Adrian, I swear to you, I didn't push her. I don't know why she's saying that."
Emma looked down.
Adrian wanted to tell Chloe to stop.
Instead, he said, "Security is still figuring out what happened."
Chloe's eyes narrowed almost imperceptibly.
"Did they check the cameras?"
There it was.
Too fast.
Not: Did they check the door?
Not: Did they find who lost the card?
The cameras.
Adrian shrugged.
"I don't know."
"They should."
"I'm sure they will."
Chloe nodded.
Then she looked at Emma.
"Sweetheart, I know you're scared, but you can't say things that aren't true."
Emma's eyes filled.
Adrian stood.
"Enough."
Chloe looked at him.
"I'm not attacking her."
"You don't speak to her about what happened unless I'm there and unless she wants to talk."
"Adrian—"
"That's not negotiable."
For the first time, Chloe seemed genuinely rattled.
She looked toward the door.
"Fine."
Paul arranged for them to leave through a staff exit to avoid the growing crowd near the tiger exhibit. Someone had seen emergency responders. Rumors were already spreading online.
Adrian buckled Emma into the back seat of his SUV.
Chloe walked toward the passenger side.
"You're not riding with us."
She stopped.
"What?"
"I'll call you later."
"My car is at your house."
"Take a cab."
Her face changed.
"You're serious?"
"Very."
"Because of what she said?"
Emma could hear them.
Adrian lowered his voice.
"Because my daughter almost died."
Chloe took a step closer.
"And you think I wanted that?"
He stared at her.
"I think I need space."
She looked through the rear window at Emma.
"She's confused."
Adrian's restraint snapped just enough for his voice to harden.
"Say that one more time and you'll need more than a cab ride."
Chloe stepped back.
He drove away.
Emma was silent for ten minutes.
Then she asked, "Is Chloe going to live with us still?"
Adrian gripped the steering wheel.
"Not tonight."
"Okay."
The relief in her voice hurt more than fear would have.
"Emma."
"Yeah?"
"Has Chloe scared you before?"
Silence.
Adrian looked at her in the mirror.
She was staring out the window.
"You can tell me anything."
"You like her."
The sentence landed like a stone.
"That doesn't matter more than you."
Emma didn't answer.
"Did she scare you before?"
A small nod.
"How?"
"Different ways."
Adrian pulled into an empty grocery-store parking lot.
He turned around in his seat.
"What ways?"
Emma twisted the edge of her sweater.
"Sometimes she tells me things will happen if I make you mad."
"What things?"
"That you'll send me to boarding school."
Adrian stared.
"I have never said that."
"I know now."
"What else?"
"She said if I kept waking you up when I had nightmares, you might get tired of being my dad."
For a moment, Adrian couldn't speak.
He thought of the nights Emma had stopped coming to his room.
He had believed she was sleeping better.
He had been proud of her.
Now he wanted to go back in time and break something.
"Anything else?"
Emma's voice became quieter.
"She said Mom left because I cried too much."
Adrian closed his eyes.
Emma's mother, Natalie, had died in a car accident when Emma was three.
She had not left.
She had not chosen anything.
"Chloe said that?"
Emma nodded.
"When?"
"Last Christmas."
Last Christmas.
Nine months ago.
Adrian had proposed to Chloe two weeks later.
The memory made him sick.
"Why didn't you tell me?"
Emma's eyes filled.
"She said you'd think I was trying to make you lonely."
Adrian unbuckled his seat belt and climbed into the back seat.
He pulled Emma against him.
"Listen to me."
She started crying.
"You will never make me lonely by telling me you're scared. You will never make me angry by telling the truth. And nobody gets to tell you I can stop being your dad."
Emma nodded against his chest.
"Not Chloe. Not anybody."
"Okay."
"I'm sorry I didn't see it."
She held him tighter.
"It's okay."
"No," Adrian whispered. "It isn't."
He stayed in the parking lot until her breathing slowed.
Then his phone rang.
Maya Ruiz.
"Mr. Hale?"
"Yes."
"I probably shouldn't be calling from my personal phone, but I found something."
"What?"
"Jonah Price."
Adrian checked the mirror even though there was no reason to.
"What about him?"
"He didn't just report his access card stolen. He said he knew who took it."
Adrian's pulse jumped.
"Who?"
"He wouldn't put a name in the report. He told security it was a personal situation and he wanted twenty-four hours to get it back before involving police."
"Why would security agree to that?"
"They didn't. They deactivated the card."
Adrian frowned.
"Then how did Chloe use it today?"
Maya was quiet.
"Exactly."
"So someone reactivated it."
"For eleven minutes."
Adrian looked at Emma.
"When?"
"From 2:09 to 2:20."
The corridor camera failed at 2:08.
The card became active at 2:09.
Emma entered at 2:14.
The emergency barrier deployed at 2:17.
Then the card was dead again at 2:20.
Not an accident.
A window.
Someone had created an eleven-minute window for Emma to reach the tiger corridor.
"Who can reactivate cards?" Adrian asked.
"Security administration. A few department managers. IT."
"Jonah?"
"No."
"Chloe?"
"Definitely not."
"Then she has help inside the zoo."
Maya didn't answer.
She didn't need to.
"Did Jonah come in?"
"Security can't reach him."
"Since when?"
"His supervisor says he called in sick yesterday. No one's seen him since."
Adrian felt the air leave his lungs.
"Is that normal?"
"Jonah hasn't called in sick in four years."
"Do the police know?"
"They do now."
Adrian ended the call and drove home.
He did not tell Emma the rest.
A patrol car was waiting outside his house.
Zoo security had contacted police, and officers wanted formal statements.
Detective Marissa Cole arrived twenty minutes later.
She was compact, calm, and direct.
She interviewed Emma with a child specialist over video rather than forcing her to repeat everything to a room full of adults.
Adrian listened from the kitchen.
Emma's story didn't change.
Chloe showed her the access card.
Chloe opened two doors.
Chloe told her about tiger cubs.
Chloe pushed her.
Chloe closed the door.
Afterward, Detective Cole sat across from Adrian.
"I'm going to ask you something personal."
"Go ahead."
"How much does Chloe know about your finances?"
Adrian frowned.
"Some. Why?"
"Shared accounts?"
"One household account. Our primary finances are separate until we're married."
"Life insurance?"
"Mine?"
"Yours and Emma's."
Adrian stared at her.
"Emma doesn't have life insurance."
"Trust?"
His expression changed.
Natalie had come from money.
Not enormous wealth, but enough.
When she died, a trust had been established for Emma using life insurance proceeds, inherited investments, and proceeds from selling Natalie's share of a family property.
The trust was worth around $1.8 million.
Emma couldn't control it until she was twenty-five.
Adrian was trustee.
If Emma died before adulthood, the money would pass to Natalie's surviving parents.
Not Chloe.
"Chloe gets nothing if Emma dies," Adrian said.
"Are you sure?"
"Absolutely."
Detective Cole watched him.
"What if you die too?"
Adrian went still.
He had updated his will three months after proposing.
If Adrian died, custody preference went first to his sister, Laura.
But certain assets—not Emma's trust, but Adrian's house, retirement accounts, and a $2 million life insurance policy—would pass largely to Chloe after marriage.
They weren't married yet.
But the wedding was six weeks away.
"She'd inherit from me after we're married," he said.
"How much?"
He told her.
Detective Cole wrote it down.
"Does Chloe know your daughter is the primary reason you haven't combined everything?"
"Yes."
"Does she resent that?"
Adrian almost said no.
Then he remembered arguments.
Small ones.
Chloe joking that their marriage had "three people in it."
Chloe asking why Emma's trust required so many restrictions.
Chloe saying Adrian treated her like a temporary guest in his own future.
"Maybe," he admitted.
Detective Cole leaned back.
"I don't think this was necessarily about money. But I need you to consider motives you haven't wanted to consider before."
His phone buzzed.
A text from Chloe.
PLEASE LET ME COME HOME. I'M SCARED.
A second arrived.
SOMEONE USED ME.
Adrian showed the detective.
"Don't answer yet," she said.
Then a third message appeared.
I KNOW WHO REACTIVATED THE CARD.
Adrian looked at Cole.
She nodded.
"Now answer."
He typed one word.
WHO?
The reply came immediately.
JONAH.
Adrian frowned.
Maya had said Jonah couldn't reactivate access cards.
He typed:
HOW?
Three dots appeared.
Then vanished.
Then appeared again.
Finally Chloe wrote:
HE HAS A FRIEND IN SECURITY. HE SAID NO ONE WOULD GET HURT.
Adrian's stomach tightened.
HE SAID?
No reply.
Detective Cole leaned over the phone.
"She's admitting she spoke to him."
Another message.
I THOUGHT IT WAS A PRANK TO SCARE HER. I DIDN'T KNOW THE TIGER WOULD BE THERE.
Adrian felt rage rise so quickly he had to put the phone down.
A prank.
To scare a seven-year-old.
Detective Cole said, "Keep her talking."
Adrian typed:
WHY WOULD YOU WANT TO SCARE EMMA?
This time Chloe took almost a minute.
Then:
BECAUSE SHE WAS TRYING TO BREAK US UP.
Adrian stared.
Emma was seven.
Seven.
He typed:
WHERE ARE YOU?
Chloe replied:
AT A HOTEL. I'LL SEND THE ADDRESS IF YOU PROMISE TO COME WITHOUT POLICE.
Cole shook her head.
"Don't promise."
Before Adrian could type anything, another message came from an unknown number.
A photograph.
Jonah Price.
Adrian recognized him from the zoo profile.
Jonah was sitting in what looked like a basement chair.
His hands were bound.
His face was bruised.
Behind him, spray-painted across a concrete wall, were four words.
HE DIDN'T HELP HER.
Then a second image arrived.
This one showed Chloe outside a roadside motel.
Taken from a distance.
Taken seconds ago.
Underneath was a message.
SHE'S LYING TO YOU TOO.
Detective Cole stood.
"Get Emma upstairs. Now."
Adrian looked at the image again.
Someone was watching Chloe.
Someone had Jonah.
May you like
And whoever it was had just told Adrian one terrifying thing.
The person inside the zoo was still out there.
