Chapter 7 - Vanessa's ConfessionThe bullet struck the wall beside Vanessa.
She screamed and dropped behind the concrete desk.
Daniel grabbed me and dragged me down.
Another shot.
Then silence.
“Who's shooting?” I whispered.
Daniel shook his head.
“I don't know.”
Vanessa crawled toward us.
Her gun had disappeared beneath the desk.
“Ethan!”
“What?”
“They'll kill Noah.”
My blood froze.
“Who?”
“Gabriel.”
“What did you do?”
“I stole the money.”
Daniel stared at her.
“You admitted it.”
Vanessa nodded.
“Gabriel made me.”
“Why?”
“Because he knew I was desperate.”
“Desperate for what?”
She looked at me.
“My brother.”
Silence.
“My brother owed him money,” she said. “A lot.”
I stared at her.
“Gabriel threatened him?”
“He threatened to ruin him.”
“That doesn't explain Lily.”
“No.”
Her voice broke.
“I met Gabriel before I met you.”
That hurt more than it should have.
“How long?”
“Months.”
“You were sleeping with him.”
She looked down.
“Yes.”
The words hung in the tunnel.
I wanted to hate her.
Instead, I felt something colder.
Lily had suspected everything.
Vanessa continued.
“Gabriel wasn't stealing from your company.”
“What?”
“He was using it to hide something else.”
“What?”
“Political donations.”
She immediately shook her head.
“I don't know the details. I never asked.”
Daniel narrowed his eyes.
“Who was the money going to?”
“I don't know.”
I cut in.
“I don't care about the money.”
Vanessa stared at me.
“What do you care about?”
“Lily.”
She looked away.
“Gabriel wanted her dead.”
“Why?”
“She found the original ledger.”
“The ledger in the teddy bear?”
“No.”
“Then where is it?”
Vanessa's face went pale.
“It's in the house.”
“Where?”
“I don't know.”
“Liar.”
“I swear.”
A noise echoed overhead.
We all looked up.
Someone was walking above us.
Daniel whispered, “We need to move.”
We took the tunnel exit.
When we reached the main house, Noah was gone again.
The officer who had been guarding him was unconscious.
Blood trickled from his forehead.
I ran upstairs.
Nothing.
Then I noticed the nursery door.
It was open.
Inside, Noah's teddy bear was lying on the floor.
Beside it was a notebook.
I opened it.
It contained Lily's handwriting.
Page after page.
Dates.
Names.
Payments.
Meetings.
And one sentence circled three times:
GABRIEL DID NOT ORDER THE KILLING.
I stopped.
“What?”
Another page.
HE RECEIVED ORDERS FROM SOMEONE ABOVE HIM.
My heart hammered.
Then a photograph fell out.
It showed Gabriel standing beside a man.
I recognized the man immediately.
My father.
But the photograph had been taken three months after my father was supposedly dead.
My fingers went numb.
“That's impossible.”
Vanessa appeared behind me.
She looked at the photograph.
“Oh God.”
Daniel entered.
I held it up.
“My father was alive.”
Daniel stared.
For the first time since I had known him, he looked frightened.
“No.”
“Then who did we bury?”
Nobody answered.
Noah appeared in the doorway.
He was holding something.
A small wooden key.
“Daddy?”
I knelt.
“Where did you get that?”
“Mommy gave it to me.”
“When?”
He looked confused.
“Before she went to sleep.”
My heart broke.
“She told me to hide it.”
“Where?”
Noah pointed toward the floor.
“Inside Mommy's closet.”
We searched.
Behind a panel in the closet was a narrow compartment.
The key fit.
Inside was a sealed envelope.
My name was written across it.
I opened it.
Only one page.
Ethan, if you find this, your father is alive.
May you like
Below that:
And he is the reason Lily died.
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