But then it came again.
A giggle.
Small.
Breathless.
Alive.
Elias’s chest seized.
- “No,” he whispered.
The sound came from above.
Harper’s room.
His briefcase fell to the floor.
He climbed the stairs too quickly, one hand gripping the banister, his pulse pounding so violently that the walls seemed to move with it.
Halfway up, he heard another sound.
A woman laughing softly.
Then a thump.
Then another giggle.
Harper.
It was Harper.
It had to be Harper.
By the time Elias reached the second floor, his breath had turned ragged. He moved down the hallway toward the nursery, each step slower now, because sudden hope frightened him more than despair.
The door was half-open.
Warm afternoon light spilled through the crack.
