Chapter 25: The Candle

Two deputies walked into the garden while the candle on Hazel's cake was still burning.

Thirty guests were halfway through the birthday song, and it died one voice at a time.

Hazel sat in her high chair in a paper crown, gripping a steel spoon.

She hit the tray once, and the spoon folded in her fist.

Troy slid it out of her fingers and into his pocket before anyone looked.

Molly saw it.

She pressed her lips together and said nothing.

A silver-haired woman in a gray wool coat came through the gate behind the deputies.

She carried a leather folder, and she did not look at one guest.

Troy had met Judith Wainright three times in twelve years, and she had never once spoken to him.

She was Mr. Wainright's older sister, and she had run the family foundation from Boston for thirty years.

Greta Voight followed her in a black suit, smiling, with her shoulder long since healed.

Dane Ostrow stood in the gateway behind them with his phone raised.

The red dot on the screen said he was streaming.

At the end of the table, Giselle's chair was empty.

She had left before the cake and climbed into a black car at the curb.

That car was idling outside the gate right now.

Troy had no time to think about it.

Celia put down the cake knife.

"Aunt Judith. This is my daughter's birthday."

"I know what day it is," Judith said. "I chose it."

She nodded to the older deputy, and he unfolded a paper.

"Troy Falk? This is an emergency order, signed by a family court judge at midnight."

The deputy read it in a flat voice.

"The minor child, Hazel Falk, is removed from this residence and placed with her great-aunt, Judith Wainright, pending a hearing."

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