CHAPTER 3 — THE SECRET TOBY WAS TOO AFRAID TO TELL
CHAPTER 3 — THE SECRET TOBY WAS TOO AFRAID TO TELL
William Hayes reached the school in eight minutes.
It normally took twenty-three.
His black Maybach slid to a stop in front of the private academy just as rain hammered the windshield hard enough to blur the world outside.
Emma had barely agreed to ride with him.
She still wasn't sure why.
Maybe because of Toby.
Maybe because of the look on William's face after the phone call—a man who had spent years controlling billion-dollar companies suddenly unable to control his own heartbeat.
No one spoke during the drive.
Principal Margaret Collins met them at the entrance.
She looked exhausted.
"There you are."
William didn't waste time.
"Where's my son?"
"In the counselor's office."
"Is he hurt?"
"No."
"Then what happened?"
The principal hesitated.
"He punched another student."
William blinked.
"Toby?"
"Yes."
"He broke the child's nose."
Emma couldn't hide her surprise.
The little boy she had met at The Bellweather had barely seemed capable of raising his voice.
Breaking someone's nose?
It didn't fit.
Not at all.
The counselor's office door opened slowly.
Toby sat curled into the corner of a couch.
His tiny hands were trembling.
His knuckles were red.
The moment he saw Emma, tears filled his eyes.
"You came."
Emma knelt beside him.
"I'm here."
He threw himself into her arms.
Not toward his father.
Toward her.
William watched in silence.
Something inside him twisted.
"Toby."
William kept his voice calm.
"Tell me what happened."
The boy buried his face against Emma's shoulder.
"I didn't mean to."
"What happened?"
"He..."
Toby couldn't finish.
Emma gently rubbed his back.
"It's okay."
"You can tell us."
The boy looked toward the doorway.
As if someone else might be listening.
Then he whispered—
"Connor said Mommy crashed the airplane because she wanted to get away from us."
Emma felt Toby begin shaking again.
"I told him to stop."
"He laughed."
"He said everybody knows rich people buy lies."
William's expression darkened.
"So you hit him."
Toby nodded once.
"I told him Mommy loved us."
"He wouldn't stop."
"So..."
"I made him stop."
The explanation should have ended there.
It didn't.
Emma noticed something strange.
Every time Toby looked at William...
Fear crossed his face.
Not anger.
Fear.
As if he desperately wanted to say something...
...but couldn't.
The school counselor entered carrying a folded drawing.
"We found this in Toby's backpack."
She handed it to William.
At first glance it looked ordinary.
A family picture.
A mother.
A father.
A little boy.
Then William noticed the airplane.
It had been colored completely black.
Underneath, in uneven seven-year-old handwriting, were six words.
DADDY SAID NEVER TELL ANYONE.
William stopped breathing.
Emma slowly looked at him.
"What does that mean?"
William's voice became dangerously quiet.
"I don't know."
But Emma wasn't convinced.
Neither was Principal Collins.
An hour later, after the school agreed not to suspend Toby pending an investigation, William drove Emma and Toby back to the mansion.
The Hayes estate looked less like a home and more like a private fortress.
Iron gates.
Armed security.
Cameras everywhere.
Lily would have thought it looked like a castle.
Emma thought it looked lonely.
Inside, Toby led her upstairs without asking permission.
"Dad never comes in here."
William looked surprised.
"I've been busy."
Toby didn't answer.
His bedroom was enormous.
A race-car bed.
Books.
Robots.
Shelves filled with toys most children dreamed about.
Yet none looked played with.
Everything was perfectly arranged.
Like a museum.
Emma noticed only one thing that looked loved.
A faded stuffed rabbit.
Its ears had been sewn back together by hand.
"You've had him a long time."
Toby smiled.
"Mom fixed him."
Emma wandered toward the bookshelf.
Something caught her eye.
A small locked wooden box.
Toby quickly stepped in front of it.
"No."
Emma stopped immediately.
"I'm sorry."
"Dad can't see."
William frowned.
"See what?"
Toby hugged the box tightly.
"I promised."
Emma looked between them.
"Promised who?"
The little boy's lips pressed together.
He wouldn't answer.
That evening Emma prepared pancakes.
Real ones.
With strawberries.
Toby laughed when she accidentally flipped one onto the floor.
William watched from the kitchen doorway.
He couldn't remember the last time laughter had echoed through the house.
Maybe before Elizabeth died.
Maybe never since.
For a brief moment...
...the mansion almost felt alive.
Then the security alarm sounded.
Every light in the house flashed red.
A guard rushed inside.
"Sir."
"What?"
"We caught someone trying to climb the east fence."
William immediately stood.
"Who?"
The guard swallowed.
"A woman."
Emma frowned.
"What woman?"
The guard looked confused.
"She wasn't trying to steal anything."
"What was she doing?"
He hesitated.
"She kept screaming one sentence."
William's face tightened.
"What sentence?"
The guard answered quietly.
"Tell William..."
"...Elizabeth didn't die by accident."
Silence exploded across the room.
The plate slipped from Emma's hands.
It shattered against the kitchen floor.
Toby turned white.
May you like
Then he whispered five words that froze every adult in the mansion.
"I know who she is."
