Chapter 2 - The Man Beneath the Stairs
The footsteps stopped outside the supply-room door.
I stopped breathing.
Ava had gone quiet again, but only because she had pressed her face into the blanket beneath her. Her little fingers clutched the edge of the changing insert.
Then the handle turned.
The door opened.
Reed Callaway filled the doorway.
He was taller than I expected from a distance. Everyone at Callaway’s seemed smaller around him, including Tommy Ritchie, who had the shoulders of a linebacker and the personality of an unpaid parking ticket.
Reed wore a black suit with no tie, his dark hair still damp from snow. He looked down at me.
Then at Ava.
Then back at me.
For a long moment, nobody said anything.
I had imagined this moment a hundred different ways.
In most versions, I was fired.
In the worse versions, Tommy dragged me into the alley and told me never to come back.
In none of them did Reed Callaway kneel on the dirty supply-room floor.
“What is her name?” he asked.
My mouth had gone dry.
“Ava.”
His expression changed very slightly.
Not warmth.
Not exactly.
But something less cold than before.
“How old?”
“Eight months.”
“You brought an infant into my restaurant.”
“Yes.”
“You hid her beside a commercial freezer.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
The question broke something open inside me.
Because I had no rent.
Because formula cost money.
Because a babysitter had canceled.
Because the world did not care that a baby needed someone when a shift started at two o’clock.
But I could not tell him all that.
Men like Reed Callaway did not need your entire life story. They only needed one weakness to use against you.
“My sitter canceled,” I said. “I had to work.”
He looked at Ava again.
“She has been here how long?”
“Twenty minutes.”
“You were planning to leave her in here during service?”
“No.” I swallowed. “I was going to check every fifteen minutes.”
Reed’s eyes lifted to mine.
“That is not an answer.”
“It is the best one I had.”
His jaw tightened.
Tommy appeared behind him.
“Boss, I can take care of this.”
My entire body went cold.
Reed did not look away from me.
“No.”
Tommy paused.
“No?” he repeated.
“No one is taking care of anything.”
Reed stood and reached for the tablecloth beside Ava.
I moved before thinking.
“Don’t touch her.”
The room went silent.
Tommy stared at me as if I had signed my own death certificate.
But Reed only looked at my hand stretched protectively across my daughter.
Then he said, quietly, “I am not going to hurt her.”
“People always say that before they decide what you deserve.”
Something shifted in his face.
A shadow.
A memory.
He bent down again, slower this time.
Ava looked up at him.
Then, to my horror, she smiled.
Reed went still.
His right hand trembled once above the blanket.
Not fear.
Recognition.
“You have someone who can watch her?” he asked.
“No.”
“Family?”
“My mother died. My father is in Indiana and believes being related to me counts as helping.”
“Her father?”
“Gone.”
Reed nodded once.
Then he stood.
“Bring her.”
I blinked.
“What?”
“You are not leaving her in a supply closet.”
“I can’t bring her into the dining room.”
“No,” Reed said. “You cannot.”
He looked at Tommy.
“Clear the office.”
Tommy frowned.
“Your office?”
“My office.”
I stared at Reed.
“The one beneath the stairs?”
“Yes.”
“But I was told—”
“That door does not exist to you,” Reed finished. “I know what Tommy told you.”
Tommy looked uncomfortable for the first time in his life.
Reed turned back toward me.
“Today, it exists.”
I did not move.
“I can’t accept that.”
“You can either accept it,” he said, “or go home and lose your job.”
His eyes fell to Ava.
“Those are the only choices I have time to give you.”
I hated him for being right.
I hated myself more for needing him.
So I lifted Ava into my arms.
May you like
And followed Reed Callaway toward the one room everyone at Callaway’s had been trained to fear.
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