Chapter 6 - The church was empty.Ethan locked the door behind them.
Lily led him toward the basement.
“How do you know this place?”
“Dad showed me.”
“Did you come here alone?”
“No.”
“Who brought you?”
“Mom.”
Ethan looked at her.
“She knew Dad was alive?”
Lily nodded.
“She cried when she saw him.”
They reached the basement.
Lily stopped beside an old wooden cabinet.
“He said there was a secret.”
Ethan moved the cabinet.
Behind it was a metal door.
The brass key opened it.
Inside was a narrow room.
A chair.
A table.
A stack of boxes.
And another camera.
Ethan turned it on.
Daniel appeared again.
“Ethan, if you're here, then Marcus is already moving.”
The recording continued.
“I need you to understand something.”
Daniel's face hardened.
“The money wasn't mine.”
“It belonged to hundreds of people Marcus destroyed.”
“Families.”
“Businesses.”
“Witnesses.”
“Everyone who knew too much.”
Ethan watched silently.
Then Daniel said something that changed everything.
“Your father wasn't innocent.”
Ethan looked at the screen.
“He helped build the company.”
“He helped move the money.”
“But when he learned what Marcus was really doing, he tried to stop him.”
Daniel looked down.
“That was the night everything fell apart.”
A second file appeared automatically.
Ethan opened it.
A security recording.
Eleven years earlier.
Marcus entering Mercer's office.
Daniel behind him.
Ethan's father standing near the window.
They argued.
The audio was poor.
But Ethan heard enough.
“You promised me,” his father said.
Marcus answered.
“You should have stayed out of it.”
Then a gunshot.
Ethan's father fell.
Daniel screamed.
Another shot.
The screen went black.
Ethan stared.
His father had been murdered.
And Daniel had witnessed it.
Then why had Daniel disappeared?
Why had he never gone to the police?
A third file appeared.
This one showed Sarah.
She was younger.
Terrified.
Speaking directly to the camera.
“If you're watching this, I failed.”
Ethan leaned closer.
“Lily is not safe.”
He looked at the little girl.
Sarah continued.
“Daniel gave me the evidence before he disappeared.”
“I hid it.”
“But Marcus found part of it.”
Sarah swallowed.
“There is something you need to know about Lily.”
The video stopped.
Ethan froze.
The screen displayed:
FILE CORRUPTED.
Lily looked at him.
“What did Mommy say?”
Ethan didn't answer.
Then his phone vibrated.
A message.
Unknown number.
Bring the girl to Mercer House at midnight.
Another message arrived immediately.
Come alone.
Then a third.
A photograph.
Sarah.
Alive.
Bound to a chair.
Lily saw it.
“Mommy!”
She tried to grab the phone.
Ethan pulled it back.
“Lily, listen to me.”
“She's alive!”
“I know.”
“We have to get her.”
“We will.”
“Now!”
Ethan looked at the photograph again.
Something was wrong.
He zoomed in.
Behind Sarah was a clock.
11:15.
And outside the window was a familiar statue.
Ethan recognized it.
It wasn't Mercer House.
It was the old Northbridge warehouse.
He looked at Lily.
“Someone wants us to go to Mercer House.”
Lily wiped her tears.
“Why?”
“Because they're expecting us.”
“Then where are we going?”
Ethan stood.
“To the place they don't want us to find.”
He picked up the flash drive.
For the first time, Ethan understood the real game.
Marcus didn't want Lily dead.
He wanted something only Lily had.
A memory.
A secret.
May you like
A piece of evidence.
And Ethan intended to find out exactly what it was before Marcus did.
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