Chapter 13 - What Lily SawMark crouched beside Lily.
"Tell me everything."
Lily shook.
"I was awake."
"What time?"
"Late."
Victoria had thought Lily was asleep.
But she wasn't.
Lily remembered seeing her enter through the back door.
Her dress was torn.
Her hands were bleeding.
And behind her stood Thomas.
"Mommy wasn't with her."
Mark swallowed.
"What did they say?"
Lily closed her eyes.
"Thomas said, 'The girl saw too much.'"
Daniel's face changed.
"Did they see you?"
Lily nodded.
"I hid."
"Where?"
"In the laundry room."
She looked at Maria.
"Maria found me."
Maria began crying.
"You told me to forget."
"I was trying to protect you."
Lily continued.
"I heard Victoria say Daddy was next."
Mark froze.
"Me?"
Lily nodded.
"She said if you didn't sign the papers, something would happen."
"What papers?"
"The trust papers."
Daniel looked at the documents.
"They had planned to force Mark to transfer the trust."
Lily reached into her pocket.
"I found this."
She handed Mark a small silver key.
"I took it from Victoria's room."
Daniel stared.
"That's not a house key."
Mark recognized it.
"The old safe."
They returned to the library.
Behind a row of books was a safe.
The key opened it.
Inside were passports.
Cash.
A burner phone.
And a contract.
Mark opened it.
The beneficiary of Lily's trust was being changed.
The new beneficiary:
Victoria Hale.
Below that was a second name.
Thomas Cross.
Mark's voice became cold.
"So that's the plan."
A voice came from the doorway.
"Not quite."
Victoria.
She stood there.
But this time she wasn't alone.
Thomas stood behind her.
Mark stepped forward.
The police were outside the room.
Victoria smiled.
"You still don't understand."
Thomas raised a phone.
"It doesn't matter what you found."
Daniel frowned.
"Why?"
"Because every recording you have is inadmissible."
Thomas held up the phone.
"I have proof Mark ordered Eleanor's death."
Mark stared.
"What?"
Thomas played an audio clip.
Mark's voice.
"Make sure she never comes back."
Mark went pale.
Another fabricated recording.
But this one was cleaner.
More convincing.
Victoria smiled.
"The court will believe it."
Mark looked at Lily.
She was trembling.
Then Maria stepped forward.
"I won't."
Victoria turned.
Maria was holding a tiny device.
"The kitchen cameras record audio."
Thomas froze.
Maria pressed play.
Victoria's real voice filled the room.
"Once Mark signs, Lily goes to Vancouver."
Thomas's face changed.
Then Richard's voice.
"What if Eleanor comes back?"
Victoria answered:
"Then we finish what we started."
The room went silent.
The police entered.
Thomas tried to run.
An officer tackled him.
Victoria screamed.
"You can't arrest me!"
Mark stood beside Lily.
"You should have thought of that before you threatened my daughter."
The officer handcuffed Victoria.
She looked at Mark.
"This isn't over."
Mark replied:
"It is."
Victoria smiled through her tears.
"No."
She glanced toward Lily.
"Ask your daughter where she got the key."
Mark frowned.
"What does that mean?"
Lily slowly backed away.
"I didn't get it from Victoria."
Mark stared at her.
"Then who gave it to you?"
Lily looked toward the hallway.
A shadow moved behind the glass doors.
And a woman's voice whispered:
"Lily."
Eleanor turned pale.
"That's impossible."
Because the voice belonged to the woman Mark had believed was dead.
The real problem was not Victoria.
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It was someone Eleanor herself had been hiding.
Her mother.
