Chapter 9 - EMILY CARTER
They escaped through a loading tunnel.
By morning, they were in Ohio.
The boarding school was no longer operating.
But Evelyn found the records.
Emily Carter had been adopted nineteen years earlier.
Her new name was Emily Hayes.
Lily stared at the file.
“Hayes?”
Daniel's face changed.
“That's impossible.”
“What?”
“The Hayes family owns one of the investment firms that bought shares in my company twenty years ago.”
Evelyn looked up.
“And their patriarch?”
“Samuel Hayes.”
She searched.
“Samuel Hayes died five years ago.”
“Children?”
“One daughter.”
“What is her name?”
Evelyn looked at the screen.
“Emily Hayes.”
Lily stopped breathing.
They found her three days later.
Emily was twenty-nine.
She lived quietly in Cleveland.
She worked as a high-school art teacher.
When Lily knocked on her door, Emily opened it.
She froze.
Lily froze too.
Neither spoke.
Finally Emily whispered:
“Lily?”
Lily nodded.
Emily began crying.
“I knew you would find me.”
Lily's voice broke.
“Why didn't you find us?”
Emily looked down.
“Because I was told you were dead.”
“What?”
“They told me everyone died.”
“Who?”
“My adoptive father.”
Daniel stepped forward.
Emily looked at him.
“You're Daniel Mercer.”
“Yes.”
She laughed bitterly.
“You don't remember me.”
Daniel frowned.
“Have we met?”
“When you were nineteen.”
Daniel's face went pale.
Emily continued.
“You carried me out of the house that night.”
Daniel couldn't breathe.
“I did?”
“Yes.”
“You were there?”
“I was hiding upstairs.”
Her eyes filled with tears.
“You told me not to make a sound.”
Daniel sat down.
His memory returned.
The rain.
The gunshot.
A baby crying.
His own arms holding a little girl.
He had forgotten.
Emily whispered:
“Your father told you to save me.”
Lily stared at her.
“Why?”
Emily looked toward Daniel.
“Because he knew Thomas was going to kill everyone who knew about the money.”
Daniel's voice was quiet.
“What happened afterward?”
“Thomas found me.”
Lily grabbed her hand.
“And?”
“He didn't kill me.”
“Why?”
Emily looked terrified.
“Because someone paid him.”
“Who?”
Emily shook her head.
“I don't know.”
Then she whispered:
“But I know where the ledger is.”
Daniel leaned forward.
“Where?”
Emily looked at Lily.
“Your mother hid it inside something she knew you would never lose.”
Lily frowned.
“What?”
May you like
Emily answered:
“Your promise.”
