Chapter 9 - Beneath BlackthornDavid dropped to his knees.
“LILY!”
He reached into the opening.
Nothing.
A rope ladder hung below.
Someone had prepared it.
Karen grabbed a flashlight.
“Down!”
They descended.
The tunnel narrowed.
David called Lily's name repeatedly.
No answer.
Then a child's cry echoed somewhere ahead.
They followed it.
The passage opened into a huge underground chamber.
David stopped.
Hundreds of photographs covered the walls.
Children.
Babies.
Families.
Names.
Dates.
Payments.
Lily's photograph was pinned in the center.
Beside it was another photograph.
Benjamin.
The two children were connected by red string.
David walked closer.
At the bottom was a final photograph.
Himself.
Taken that morning.
Karen whispered, “Someone has been watching this family for years.”
David found a desk.
On it lay a black ledger.
The ledger from the box.
He opened it.
Names filled the pages.
Doctors.
Lawyers.
Politicians.
Bankers.
Family members.
Then he saw his father's name.
Beside it was a payment.
A huge amount.
Then another name.
Karen's mother.
Then another.
Evelyn.
David stared.
There were dozens of transactions.
At the very bottom was one sentence:
PROJECT HEIR: ACTIVE.
The lights came on.
A man stood on the balcony above them.
The lawyer.
“Drop the gun.”
David raised it.
“Where is Lily?”
The man smiled.
“Alive.”
“Bring her down.”
“Not yet.”
David stepped forward.
“You took my children.”
“I saved them.”
“You kidnapped them.”
“I prevented a war.”
David frowned.
The lawyer leaned against the railing.
“Your family has been fighting over this trust since before your grandfather was born.”
He pointed toward the ledger.
“Benjamin is the legal heir.”
“Then why hide him?”
“Because if he were discovered, every claimant would come for him.”
“And Lily?”
“The insurance.”
David's face hardened.
“What does that mean?”
“She is the emotional weakness that keeps you predictable.”
Karen shouted, “Who are you working for?”
The lawyer smiled.
“The same person you've trusted all these years.”
David's stomach turned.
“No.”
The lawyer nodded toward Karen.
“She knows.”
David looked at Karen.
Her face had gone pale.
“What?”
Karen whispered, “Your attorney.”
David's personal attorney.
The man who had handled every family document.
Every trust.
Every inheritance.
Every legal record.
David suddenly understood.
Someone with access to everything had rewritten the family story.
The lawyer lifted the ledger.
“But this isn't the final secret.”
He dropped the ledger.
A trapdoor opened behind him.
A voice came from the darkness.
“Because Benjamin isn't the only child you lost.”
David froze.
A second child stepped into the light.
A girl.
About ten years old.
She looked exactly like Lily.
Same eyes.
Same dark hair.
Same face.
Lily's face.
David whispered, “Who is that?”
The girl smiled.
“I'm your daughter.”
Karen staggered backward.
“No…”
The girl pointed at Lily's empty passage.
“Tell Daddy what happened to the first Lily.”
David's blood ran cold.
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The real question wasn't where his daughter had been taken.
It was which daughter had been living with him all along.
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