CHAPTER 2 THE MAN WHO CAME FOR LILY
The gunshot echoed through the mansion.
Grace screamed.
Lily clung to Nathan's leg.
Victoria stumbled backward.
Richard Cole didn't move.
For one terrifying second, nobody breathed.
Then the security alarm erupted through the house.
BEEP. BEEP. BEEP.
Red emergency lights flickered on.
Nathan immediately pulled Lily behind him.
“Everyone down!”
Another gunshot cracked from upstairs.
A mirror in the hallway shattered.
Grace dropped to the floor and covered Lily's head.
Nathan drew the handgun from the holster beneath his jacket.
His security chief, Marcus, appeared from the hallway with two guards.
“Mr. Cole!”
Nathan pointed upstairs.
“Lock every exit.”
“Already doing it.”
“Get the police.”
Marcus hesitated.
Nathan turned sharply.
“Now!”
“Yes, sir.”
Marcus ran.
Richard finally moved.
He grabbed Nathan's arm.
“No police.”
Nathan stared at him.
“My daughter is being hunted inside my house, and you're telling me not to call the police?”
“If you call them, they'll know she's here.”
“Who?”
Richard didn't answer.
Nathan shoved his father's hand away.
“Who is coming for her?”
Richard's jaw tightened.
“The same people who made sure you never found her.”
Grace looked at him.
“You knew they were still watching?”
Richard's eyes met hers.
“Yes.”
Grace's face collapsed.
“You promised me.”
“I promised you they wouldn't find her.”
“You lied.”
“I kept her alive.”
Grace stood despite the pain in her shoulder.
“You didn't keep her alive.”
Her voice shook with rage.
“I did.”
Richard looked toward Lily.
“I was the only reason they stopped looking.”
Nathan stared between them.
“What are you talking about?”
Grace swallowed.
“Your father knew.”
Nathan's eyes narrowed.
“Knew what?”
“That Lily survived.”
Silence.
Richard closed his eyes.
Nathan's voice became dangerously quiet.
“How long?”
Richard didn't answer.
“How long have you known?”
“Since she was born.”
Nathan looked as though someone had struck him.
“You knew my daughter was alive for four years?”
Richard said nothing.
Nathan stepped toward him.
“You watched me grieve her mother.”
“I watched you survive.”
“You told me Grace abandoned me.”
“She had to disappear.”
“You told me she chose another man!”
Richard's expression hardened.
“Because if I had told you the truth, you'd have gone after her.”
“I WOULD HAVE!”
Nathan's shout shook the room.
Lily began crying again.
Grace immediately pulled her close.
Nathan saw his daughter's tears.
His anger disappeared beneath something heavier.
Regret.
He crouched in front of Lily.
“I'm sorry.”
Lily stared at him.
“For what?”
Nathan's throat tightened.
“For not finding you sooner.”
Lily wiped her cheek.
“Mommy said you were busy.”
Nathan looked at Grace.
Grace couldn't meet his eyes.
Nathan gently touched Lily's hair.
“I wasn't busy.”
He swallowed.
“I was looking for you.”
Lily tilted her head.
“You were?”
“For a long time.”
She thought about it.
“Why didn't you come?”
Nathan had no answer.
Not one that wouldn't destroy everything.
Before he could respond, a loud crash came from the second floor.
Marcus shouted over the radio.
“Movement! West corridor!”
Nathan stood.
“Get them out.”
Grace shook her head.
“No.”
Nathan looked at her.
“What?”
“We can't leave through the main entrance.”
“Why?”
“Because they won't be waiting outside.”
Richard's face darkened.
“They'll be waiting underground.”
Nathan looked at him.
“What?”
Richard pointed toward the floor.
“There are three tunnels beneath this estate.”
Nathan stared.
“You built escape tunnels under my house?”
“No.”
Richard's voice was grim.
“I built them under the company headquarters.”
Nathan's eyes narrowed.
“Why would a company need escape tunnels?”
Richard didn't answer.
And Nathan suddenly understood.
This wasn't a family secret.
It was an empire built on secrets.
Nathan grabbed Grace's good arm.
“We're leaving.”
Richard blocked the doorway.
“You don't understand.”
Nathan shoved him aside.
“I understand enough.”
Richard caught his sleeve.
“If you take Lily outside, they'll kill her.”
Nathan turned.
“Then tell me where to go.”
Richard stared at him.
For the first time, fear appeared clearly in his eyes.
“Your library.”
Nathan frowned.
“What?”
“Behind the fireplace.”
Grace looked at Richard suspiciously.
“What is there?”
“The original records.”
Nathan froze.
“What records?”
Richard whispered:
“Everything.”
The word hung in the air.
Nathan released his father.
“Move.”
They hurried into the library.
Nathan pulled the massive fireplace ornament aside.
Nothing happened.
Richard stepped forward.
He pressed his thumb against a hidden scanner.
A faint click sounded.
The fireplace moved.
Behind it was a narrow steel door.
Nathan stared.
“You had this in my house?”
Richard nodded.
“It's been here since before you were born.”
Grace tightened her grip on Lily.
“What's inside?”
Richard looked at her.
“The reason they wanted your daughter dead.”
Nathan opened the steel door.
A dark staircase descended beneath the mansion.
Cold air rushed upward.
Lily whispered:
“Daddy…”
Nathan looked down at her.
“Stay beside me.”
They descended.
At the bottom was a reinforced room.
There were filing cabinets.
Computer servers.
Boxes.
Photographs.
And an enormous wall covered with names.
Nathan walked closer.
His blood ran cold.
There were hundreds.
Employees.
Politicians.
Judges.
Police officers.
Doctors.
Journalists.
Every name was connected to a single company.
COLE GLOBAL HOLDINGS.
Nathan turned slowly.
“What is this?”
Richard didn't answer.
Grace walked toward one of the cabinets.
She opened it.
Inside were photographs.
Her photograph.
Lily's photograph.
Taken when Lily was six months old.
Then one year old.
Two.
Three.
Four.
Grace's hands began shaking.
“They watched us.”
Richard looked away.
Grace pulled another photograph from the file.
It showed her standing outside a small apartment.
Lily was holding her hand.
On the back was a date.
Three days before Grace disappeared.
Grace's face went pale.
“They knew where I was.”
Richard said quietly:
“Yes.”
Nathan looked at him.
“You said they couldn't find her.”
“I said they couldn't reach her.”
Nathan's eyes hardened.
“What happened?”
Richard remained silent.
Grace turned toward him.
“Tell him.”
Richard looked at Nathan.
“Five years ago, someone inside the company ordered Grace's disappearance.”
Nathan's expression changed.
“Who?”
Richard hesitated.
Then he pointed toward the wall.
One name was circled in red.
Nathan walked closer.
He stared at it.
His breathing stopped.
Because the name belonged to the one person he had trusted more than anyone.
His father's chief financial officer.
His godfather.
The man who had helped raise him after his mother's death.
EDWARD VALE.
Nathan whispered:
“Uncle Edward?”
Richard nodded.
“He wasn't working alone.”
Nathan turned.
“Who else?”
Richard looked toward Grace.
Then toward Lily.
“I never found out.”
A sudden noise came from the staircase.
Footsteps.
Slow.
Measured.
Someone was coming down.
Nathan immediately pulled Grace and Lily behind the cabinets.
Richard reached for a weapon.
The footsteps stopped.
Silence.
Then a man's voice floated through the darkness.
“Richard?”
Nathan's eyes widened.
He knew that voice.
Richard looked terrified.
The voice came again.
“You've hidden that little girl for four years.”
A pause.
Then:
“It's time to finish what we started.”
Grace covered Lily's mouth.
Nathan raised his weapon.
The steel door slowly opened.
A man stepped into the room.
He wore a black suit.
His face was calm.
Almost friendly.
Nathan recognized him instantly.
Edward Vale.
Nathan's godfather smiled.
“Hello, Nathan.”
Nathan aimed the gun directly at him.
“You're not taking my daughter.”
Edward's smile disappeared.
“I don't want your daughter.”
He reached into his coat.
Nathan tightened his finger around the trigger.
Edward pulled out a photograph.
He held it up.
“I'm here because your father never told you the truth about your mother.”
Richard went completely still.
Nathan stared at the photograph.
It showed his mother.
Alive.
Standing beside Grace.
And beside them was a newborn Lily.
Nathan's eyes widened.
The date printed beneath the photograph was impossible.
Six months before Lily was born.
Edward smiled again.
“Your daughter wasn't the beginning, Nathan.”
He lowered the photograph.
“She was the bait.”
Grace's blood ran cold.
Nathan whispered:
“Bait for what?”
Edward looked directly at him.
“To bring you back to the woman your father killed.”
The room went silent.
And behind Nathan, Grace suddenly realized something.
The woman in the photograph wasn't merely standing beside her.
She was holding Lily.
May you like
And written across the back in Nathan's mother's handwriting were six words:
“If Nathan finds her, run.”
