Chapter 8 - THE SISTER
Lily didn't speak for almost an hour.
They sat in the investigator's office while Evelyn searched old records.
“There were four children registered to your mother's address,” Evelyn finally said.
Lily stared.
“Four?”
“Two boys. Two girls.”
Daniel looked at her.
“You knew about Owen and Noah.”
Lily nodded.
“But not another girl.”
Evelyn continued.
“The fourth child was born fourteen months before you.”
“What happened to her?”
Evelyn hesitated.
“She disappeared from the records.”
Lily stood.
“That's impossible.”
“I know.”
“Her name?”
Evelyn turned the screen.
Emily Carter.
Lily stared at the name.
“I've never heard it.”
Daniel noticed something.
“What?”
“The adoption record.”
Evelyn opened it.
Emily Carter had supposedly died as an infant.
But there was no death certificate.
No hospital record.
No burial.
Nothing.
“Someone erased her.”
Lily whispered.
“Why?”
Daniel looked at the old letter.
“Because she may know where the second ledger is.”
That night, Lily returned to her apartment.
She couldn't sleep.
At 2:07 a.m., someone knocked.
She froze.
Three knocks.
Slow.
Deliberate.
She grabbed her phone.
“Who is it?”
No answer.
Then a photograph slid beneath the door.
Lily picked it up.
Her heart stopped.
It showed her mother.
Holding a baby girl.
On the back were six words:
YOU WERE NEVER SUPPOSED TO FIND HER.
Lily called Daniel.
He arrived within fifteen minutes.
When he saw the photograph, his expression changed.
“I know this place.”
“Where?”
“My father's old warehouse.”
“Why would my mother be there?”
“Because that warehouse was where the missing financial records were stored.”
Lily stared at him.
“Then we're going.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
“Lily, whoever sent this knows where you live.”
“Exactly.”
“That means you stay here.”
“No.”
Daniel's voice hardened.
“I've spent nineteen years trying to protect you.”
“And I've spent nineteen years trying to understand why my mother died.”
She stepped closer.
“You don't get to protect me by keeping me ignorant.”
Daniel stared at her.
Then he nodded.
“Fine.”
The warehouse was abandoned.
At least officially.
Inside, the air smelled of rust and dust.
They found an old office behind a false wall.
Lily entered first.
There was a desk.
A chair.
And a photograph.
A little girl stood beside a woman.
Lily stared.
The girl was older than her.
But the eyes were unmistakable.
“She looks like me.”
Daniel nodded.
“Emily.”
Behind the photograph was an address.
Evelyn searched it.
“It's a private boarding school in Ohio.”
Lily looked at Daniel.
“She could still be alive.”
Before Daniel could answer, the lights went out.
A gunshot exploded.
Glass shattered.
Lily screamed.
Daniel pulled her to the floor.
Another shot.
Then silence.
Daniel whispered:
“Stay down.”
Footsteps approached.
He looked around.
No attacker.
Only a voice echoing through the warehouse.
“You should have left the past alone.”
Daniel stood.
“Who are you?”
A man's voice answered:
“You already know.”
Then the warehouse doors slammed shut.
Smoke began filling the room.
May you like
Daniel grabbed Lily's hand.
“Run!”
