Chapter 6 - The Nurse in the Shadows
The woman dropped the plastic tray. It hit the carpet with a dull thud, the ceramic teacups rolling silently across the floor without breaking.
“Who are you?” the nurse demanded, her voice shaking as she instinctively stepped between me and the bed where Elena sat clutching her stuffed rabbit. “How did you get in here? Mr. Cross locked the deadbolt from the outside!”
“I have my ways,” I said, my voice dropping into a cold, flat register that masked the panic clawing at my throat. I stood my ground, my eyes locked on the nurse’s terrified face. “More importantly, why don't you tell me why my husband is keeping a child hidden in a Nantucket hotel room under a false name?”
The nurse—older, with graying hair pulled back into a tight bun and a scar cutting across her left cheekbone—glanced back at Elena, then back at me. A look of profound sorrow washed over her features, washing away the initial fear.
“You’re Mrs. Cross,” she whispered, her voice softening. “The gallery owner from Chicago. He... he talks about you when he thinks no one is listening.”
“Does he?” I stepped closer, my heels clicking sharply against the floorboards. “Does he talk about how he lies to me every single day? Does he tell you how he plays husband in one city and father in another?”
“You don't understand,” the nurse said, holding her hands up defensively. “Mr. Cross didn't hide Elena to hurt you. He hid her to keep her alive.”
“Alive?” I let out a harsh, disbelieving laugh. “From whom? Her own uncle? Julian Sterling is out in the hallway right now, and he claims Nathaniel kidnapped her!”
The nurse—her name tag read Hallowell in faded cursive—flinched as if she had been struck.
“Julian Sterling didn't give a damn about this little girl until his brother died and left control of the Atlantic shipping routes to her trust,” Nurse Hallowell said fiercely, stepping away from the bed and closing the distance between us. “Julian killed his own brother to get his hands on that trust five years ago. Nathaniel smuggled Elena out of the hospital in Boston before Julian’s men could finish the job.”
The room seemed to tilt again. Every piece of information I had gathered over the last ten minutes was violently rearranging itself in my mind.
Nathaniel wasn't the villain who had stolen a child. He was the protector who had hidden a orphaned girl from a murderous uncle.
So why lie to me? Why keep it a secret from his own wife?
“If that’s true,” I whispered, my voice trembling as the weight of the conspiracy settled over my shoulders, “why didn't he tell me? Why make me think he was having an affair? Why let me walk into this room feeling like my entire marriage was a sham?”
“Because,” a deep, cold voice echoed from the doorway, “if you knew the truth, Ava, you would have tried to help. And in my world, the people who try to help me are the ones Julian targets first.”
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I spun around.
Nathaniel stood in the doorway. He had shed his suit jacket entirely; his shirtsleeves were rolled up, his jaw was tight, and his dark eyes were fixed on me with a terrifying mix of fury and raw, desperate relief.
