Alice took countless pictures of everybody under the sun but never turned the camera on herself. Her own childhood was devoid of photos and few memories of any extended family. The biggest mystery was her father. Her mother didn’t like to talk about him much. She’d been strangely mute on the subject except for once when Alice had found her looking at a photo of a tall, blond man with the name Miller written on the back of it. While drunk, her mother had confessed that he was a wealthy, married man, who wanted nothing to do with Alice. Another Lance. Alice had no desire to search for him. The last thing she needed in her life was more rejection. Yet she was setting herself up for just that by falling in love with Niko.
Niko entwined his fingers with hers. She rested her head against his chest as the years on the video passed, each one more precious than the last. This warm, wonderful man made her feel special and she reveled in the fact she was in his life. If only for a little while.
A man Alice didn’t recognize popped up in frame. Blond with a slender build, he had a decided southern accent.
“That’s Jon,” Hallie said, a slight wobble in her voice. This couldn’t be easy, watching the man she loved. He was no longer there to talk to or touch. At least once Alice left, she knew Niko would still be alive.
“All right everyone. Please sit in front of the tree. Hallie and I have a special gift for the family,” Jon said from the TV screen. “Where’s Niko?”
“Right here,” Video Niko walked on camera, head shaved with a tattoo of a pair of boxing gloves on the side of his skull. Whipcord lean, he sported a purple bruise under one eye. Despite his menacing appearance, he looked relaxed and carefree without the weight of the world on his shoulders. “What’s going on?”
“I’ll tell you once everybody is sitting next to the tree,” Jon said.
“You have a tattoo on your scalp?” Alice tilted her head and met his amused glance, barely able to reconcile the earthy man she’d fallen in love with to the edgy man in the video.
“Yes, he does,” Sarah said, disapproval in her tone.
Niko’s answering chuckle vibrated through Alice and she turned back to the TV, anxious to catch a glimpse of Chloe.
“Everybody close your eyes,” Jon said.
Video Hallie entered the room, her hair a much lighter shade of brown. Like her brother, she looked healthy, rested, and extremely happy. She carried a tiny bundle wrapped in a Christmas blanket in her arms. Not the blanket Alice’s grandmother had embroidered for her, not the one Alice had gifted to her daughter.
Another dead end. The universe wasn’t making this easy for Alice.
Jon must have picked up the camera from the tripod because it began to shift focus. Hallie knelt before the Christmas tree in front of her mother, her back blocking the shot for an instant.
The anticipation for the reveal sent Alice’s heart to her throat. She had seen her daughter once after her birth, but she’d been traumatized by the entire situation, and couldn’t recall many details about her features. Just a reddened, wrinkled face and fuzzy light hair.
Hallie picked up the baby and placed it in her mother’s lap. “Merry Christmas Grandma and Grandpa.”
Video Sarah’s eyes flew open and she put her hand to her mouth. She lifted the baby while Marc traced a finger down the baby’s cheek, tears brightening both of their eyes.
“That’s me,” Chloe said on a yawn.
“Yes, precious, that’s you,” Hallie agreed.
On-screen Sarah removed Chloe’s hat to reveal a shock of strawberry blond hair. Like Brooke’s. Like Alice’s, before she colored it honey blond. Video Niko lifted the baby and held her close to his face, inspecting the little bundle. “What is her name?”
“Chloe, after my mother,” Jon said.
Tears dropped off Alice’s cheek and on to her arm. She brushed them back, not even realizing she was crying. Niko pulled her closer into his chest, his linked fingers tightening over her own. She was grateful Sarah was crying as well, wiping at her eyes with a tissue. It made her own emotional response fit into the narrative.
“I think Alice needs one of those,” Niko said.
Alice halted in mid-reach for the handkerchief she’d tucked into her pocket earlier in lieu of the tissue Sarah proffered.
“It gets me every time. It was the best Christmas gift I have ever received,” Sarah said, sniffling. Marc reached over and clasped her hand with his, comforting his wife the way Niko comforted her.
“Grandma, it’s midnight,” Chloe said, rising from her mother’s lap and plopping down in front of the Christmas tree.
“I don’t want to miss this,” Alice said, hoping the shake in her voice didn’t betray her guilt over what she was about to do. She wanted to have something to remind her of Chloe. It would be perfectly natural to take a photo of Chloe opening her gift.
Removing her hand from Niko’s, she slipped her phone from her pocket and clicked on the camera app. This is what she’d sunk to, stalking a little girl.
No, not creepy at all.
Marc handed Chloe a box with an elaborate ribbon over the lid while Sarah filmed it on her phone. The girl opened the top and squealed. She reached inside and pulled out the orange tabby kitten that Niko had brought on set.
