Chapter 8 - THE NIGHT LILY DISAPPEAREDThe next morning, Lily disappeared.
For exactly six minutes.
Those six minutes nearly destroyed me.
We were staying in a secure apartment with two officers downstairs.
Lily was coloring at the table.
I was on a call with our legal team.
I looked away.
Six minutes later, she was gone.
Her crayons were scattered across the floor.
The balcony door was open.
My heart stopped.
“LILY!”
Police flooded the apartment.
Then someone found a note on the table.
DON'T CALL THE POLICE.
I called anyway.
Of course I did.
We checked the building.
No exits.
No elevators.
No stairwell movement.
Then one officer noticed the maintenance closet.
Locked from outside.
Inside was Lily.
She was sitting on the floor, frightened but physically unharmed.
I dropped to my knees.
“Sweetheart!”
She ran into my arms.
“I thought I was going to disappear.”
“I've got you.”
Her breathing was ragged.
“Who put you in here?”
“A man.”
“Victor?”
She nodded.
“How did he get inside?”
“I don't know.”
Then she whispered:
“He wasn't alone.”
I pulled back.
“Who was with him?”
Lily looked toward the door.
“Mom.”
Claire was in another room under police supervision.
I found her immediately.
“Did you help him?”
She looked horrified.
“No.”
“Lily says you were there.”
“I was.”
“Then explain.”
Claire started shaking.
“Victor came to me.”
“When?”
“Last night.”
“What did he want?”
“Lily.”
“For what?”
“He said the safe location was compromised.”
“And you believed him?”
“I didn't know what to believe.”
I stared at her.
“You walked into the apartment with him.”
“I thought he was going to take her.”
“You were right.”
“I was trying to stop him.”
“How?”
She looked away.
“I gave him the information.”
“What information?”
I froze.
“Claire.”
She whispered:
“The access code.”
I stepped closer.
“You gave him the security code?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because he had Nolan.”
“What?”
“Nolan was in the hospital.”
She showed me a photograph.
Nolan strapped to a hospital bed.
A black eye.
Bandage across his forehead.
Victor had sent it to Claire.
The caption said:
NEXT TIME IT'S LILY.
I understood.
Victor wasn't just threatening Claire.
He was controlling everyone through fear.
But none of that erased what Claire had done.
Police arrested her for violating protective orders and obstruction.
As they led her away, Lily stood behind me.
“Dad?”
“Yes?”
“Mom said something before she left.”
“What?”
“She said, ‘Ask your father about the red folder.’”
My blood ran cold again.
The red folder.
I had finally understood.
Victor wasn't after the company alone.
He wanted whatever my father had put inside that folder.
I drove with Reed to my old office.
The police had secured it.
The red folder was still in the locked drawer.
My father's handwriting was on the front.
FOR ETHAN. WHEN THE TIME COMES.
I opened it.
Inside was a single letter.
My father wrote that Mercer Systems had been targeted years earlier by a financial network operating through shell companies.
Victor Hale's name appeared.
But the last paragraph was what froze me.
I learned that Victor never acted alone.
Someone in my family helped him.
I looked at Reed.
“Family?”
We read the final sentence.
And Ethan, if you ever discover that person, do not confront them.
Because they already know everything about you.
My phone rang.
The caller ID showed one name.
Claire.
She was in police custody.
I answered.
Her voice was shaking.
“Ethan.”
“What?”
“I know who your father was talking about.”
“Who?”
She took a breath.
May you like
Then whispered:
“Your mother.”
Related Stories
