THE HEIR'S REVENGE

Chapter 35

It's been long overdue so we started the meeting at eight in the morning on a Saturday morning.

It was a security meeting.

I had told Mrs. Park not to let Lily outside since we were using the sitting room instead of the study as I had wanted.

Henry had said that my study was way too private to let people in and he was right. There were six people in total in the meeting. Me, Henry, a security expert and three of her team members.

Agent Reeves was the name of the woman and she was a very focused woman who seemed to notice everything around her.

Henry told me specifically that it was Gerald that had recommended the security agency to him. According to Gerald, he had worked with them in the past and they provided great services.

I knew I had to be careful but even as I sat away from her, she felt like the right person.

"This is what we currently have in place," Agent Reeves started without wasting any time. "Two security agents working in shifts at the house, someone watching overnight, a camera on the corridor outside Miss Lily's room and new locks on all the doors and windows."

"That's correct," I said.

“Alright. I'll show you now how we'll move.” She turned her tablet screen towards me to show me something. The plan this time was much bigger and better than the last.

The plan was that there will be only two security agents that their job will be to protect Luly. They would do nothing else but to protect her.

The agents were introduced.

One was named Agent Cole and she was the one to go inside the s good with Lily every day. Then the second agent was Agent Cole, his job was to be present when Lily moved from one place to another.

“Before Lily goes back to school, she will already know them personally.” Agent Reeves said. “We found Agents that were good with children knowing that we were working with a child. Agent Yemi here is good with children, before she became a security agent, she worked in child protection so she understands how to be around kids.”

I thought about that.

"How exactly do you explain to a five year old why she suddenly has someone following her everywhere without making her feel like something terrible is about to happen?"

“We don't tell them the word ‘bodyguard’” Agent Reeves started. “Agent Yemi will be introduced as a helper and a friend. We'll tell her that Yemi will be the one to make sure she has everything she needs during the day.” She paused. “You don't have to worry about anything. It's our job to orient her from danger, hit make her worry about it.”

I sat quietly and thought about Lily asking me if she was a bad girl the day she came home from the kidnapping attempt. I thought about how she checked that I was somewhere in the house before she closed her eyes to sleep every night.

"She is going to ask a lot of questions," I said.

"Yes she will," Agent Reeves agreed. "And we already have answers ready for her. Honest answers that don't hide the truth but also don't put fear in her heart. We have done this many times before Mr Blackwell."

I nodded and told her to continue.

Agent Reeves explained everything and the changes in the house. Shevsaud that two cameras will be in the house. The gate of the front house was getting a new system. Anyone coming in would need both a code and face scan before the gate would open.

Then in Lily's room, there'd be a button installed in the star shaped nightlight she has. It would be placed low enough that even Lily's small hand will reach it.

“Dids she need to know what that button does?” I asked quickly. “As much as I want her to be protected, I don't want her to have the feeling that she was being followed.”

“She had to know that the button exists. She needs to know it is there and she needs to know how to use it."

I nodded. It made sense that she had to know.

"We completely agree with you but you have no need to worry," Agent Reeves said. "We will show it to her ourselves and we will make it feel normal. Just another part of her room like her light switch."

Henry, who had been sitting and listening without saying a word, finally spoke.

"What about the school itself?"

Agent Reeves looked at him and answered directly.

“Well, we had to go to the school ourselves. The Principal, thankfully, was helpful and cooperative. From now on no adult will be allowed through the school gate during school hours unless they are on an approved list.”

That list has exactly four names on it which are Mrs Park, the driver Marcus, Mr Blackwell and myself. Nobody can be added to that list without me personally giving permission.

She continued. "Miss Adler, who is Lily's teacher, has also been informed but only about what she needs to know. She knows there is a safety concern and she knows Agent Yemi's role at the school. She does not know the full details of what happened at the gate that day."

"That is exactly right," I said. I was glad that everything I had discussed with Henry previously was finally happening.

This was big.

"One more thing, Henry told me about Miss Lily's friend." Agent Reeves said and she looked straight at me. "Mia."

I waited for her to continue.

“I don't know what we should do about it. I am worried that Mia might see what's happening around Lily, then go home to talk to her parents about it. This could make the parents question her.”

“I am not saying we should stop Lily from spending time with her friend. I am only suggesting that you consider meeting Mia's parents yourself and having a brief honest conversation with them. That way if questions come up they will come to you directly instead of turning into gossip at the school gate."

________________

I thought about the two little girls walking out of school together on that first day with their arms bumping into each other while they talked about rabbits and beanbag colours.

"Set up that meeting," I said. "I will talk to them myself."

Agent Reeves wrote something down and moved on.

The meeting went on for another forty minutes after that. We talked about routes and emergency plans and how the agents would communicate with each other and what would happen in different situations. By the time we finished I was holding a document that was seventeen pages long.

It was exactly what I had asked for.

But sitting there holding those seventeen pages I also felt something else underneath all the planning and the professional language. Something I did not say out loud in that room.

I was making seventeen pages of emergency plans for a five year old girl who just wanted to colour and carry her rabbit and make friends with a girl named Mia. She had done nothing wrong. She had not asked for any of this. The only reason danger had found her was because she was connected to me.

That thought was not useful so I put it away.

"When does all of this start?" I asked.

"Everything at the house will be ready by tonight," Agent Reeves said. "Agent Yemi will meet Miss Lily tomorrow morning. If that introduction goes well then we can talk about sending her back to school before the end of the week."

I nodded.

"Mr Blackwell," Agent Reeves said before she closed her folder. "Children who have had a frightening experience usually adjust to protection faster than people expect. They understand even without being told directly that the new arrangement means someone is paying attention to them. Someone is making sure they are safe." She looked at me steadily. "Miss Lily is going to be all right."

She said it the way a doctor gives a diagnosis. Not to make me feel better. Because it was true.

"Thank you," I said.

Lily met Agent Yemi at ten o'clock the same morning.

Mrs Park had already prepared her in the way she always prepared Lily for new things which was to simply tell her the truth in small pieces. She told Lily that a new person was coming to visit today. She told her the person's name was Yemi and that she worked with children and that she had apparently heard Lily was very good at drawing.

When Agent Yemi arrived she was not wearing anything that looked like a uniform or anything official. She was in normal everyday clothes and she knocked on the sitting room door the same way any ordinary visitor would knock.

Lily was on the carpet with her rabbit.

Agent Yemi did something that I had not expected. She sat down on the floor across from Lily without waiting to be invited. She looked at the rabbit and she used his correct name because Henry had told her in advance. She asked Lily if she could see his eyes up close because she had heard they were a very particular shade of green.

Lily looked at her for a long moment the way she always looked at new people. Taking her time. Making her decision.

Then she held the rabbit out.

I was watching from the doorway. I had planned to stay for the introduction and then leave them to it but I found that I could not quite make myself leave yet.

Agent Yemi looked at the rabbit's eyes with real attention. She told Lily that the colour reminded her of the sea in a place she had visited once and she described what that place looked like for a little while. Lily listened without moving or saying anything which meant she was very interested.

"Did you bring your own toy?" Lily asked when Agent Yemi finished.

"I forgot to," Agent Yemi said.

Lily thought about this seriously. Then she reached into the pile of things next to her and pulled out a small stuffed bear that I had not noticed before. It was smaller than the rabbit and slightly flat from being at the bottom of the pile for too long.

She held it out to Agent Yemi.

"You can borrow him for today," she said. "Only today though."

Agent Yemi took the bear as seriously as if she had been handed something very valuable. "I will take good care of him," she said.

"His name is Bear," Lily told her.

"That is a very good name," Agent Yemi said.

"I know," Lily said.

I stepped back from the doorway.

Henry was standing behind me in the corridor. When I turned around he was looking at the wall beside him which was what Henry did when he wanted to give me privacy without actually leaving.

"She is going to be all right," I said quietly. Not to Henry really. Just out loud.

"Yes," Henry said. "She is."

The call came at two in the afternoon.

I was at the Blackwell tower going through the final paperwork for the east district acquisition with Gerald's team. The work needed full concentration and I had been giving it that. My personal phone was on the desk beside me in silence.

When I looked down at it between two documents I saw that I had missed a call.

Unknown number.

I looked at it for a second. Unknown numbers meant something different to me now than they did before all of this started. I had learned not to ignore them.

I stepped out of Gerald's meeting room and called the number back.

It rang three times.

Then someone picked up.

And the voice on the other end was one I had not heard in years but recognised immediately. Completely immediately. The way you recognise a voice that was part of the furniture of your childhood even if the childhood was not a good one.

Calm. Elegant. Completely in control of itself.

"Hello Ethan," Victoria Pierce said. "I think it is time we had a conversation. Just the two of us. Don't you?"

I stood in the corridor of the thirty eighth floor of my own building and said nothing for exactly three seconds.

Then I said "Where."

And Victoria told me.