Chapter 15 - THE TRUTH ABOUT LILY
Scott's silence told me more than any confession could have. For fifteen years, I had learned to read his face without realizing I was doing it. I knew the tiny movement at the corner of his mouth when he was lying. I knew the way his eyes shifted toward the window when he was hiding something. I knew the quiet breath he took before saying something he had already rehearsed. But I had never seen this expression before. Fear. Not fear of losing the company. Not fear of prison. Not even fear of Richard. It was the expression of a man standing at the edge of a secret so dangerous that saying it aloud might destroy whatever remained of his life.
I stepped closer.
“Who is Lily's father?”
Scott looked at Detective Shaw.
Then at me.
“I don't know how to tell you.”
“Start with the truth.”
He closed his eyes.
“Lily was never supposed to be born.”
My heart stopped.
“What?”
“Richard knew about the pregnancy.”
“How?”
“He had people watching you.”
I felt sick.
Scott continued.
“But he didn't know the child was yours.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Your father changed the records.”
“Why?”
“To hide the child's identity.”
I stared at him.
“From Richard?”
“Yes.”
“Why would my father hide my own daughter from him?”
Scott didn't answer.
I grabbed his arm.
“Tell me.”
He looked at me.
“Because Lily isn't just your heir.”
The garage became completely silent.
“She is the heir to something Richard has been searching for his entire life.”
“What?”
Scott shook his head.
“I don't know.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
“I was never told the entire truth.”
“Then who knows?”
“Evelyn.”
I immediately called the hospital.
No answer.
Again.
Nothing.
Detective Shaw called the nurse.
Her face hardened.
“She still hasn't been found.”
I looked at Scott.
“Then we find her.”
He nodded.
We returned to Evelyn's house.
The front door was unlocked.
The living room looked exactly as it had before, except one drawer had been pulled open and papers were scattered across the floor.
Detective Shaw searched the room.
I walked toward Evelyn's desk.
There was an old wooden box sitting beneath it.
I opened it.
Inside was a letter.
My name was on the front.
Diane.
I unfolded it.
“Dear Diane, if Scott finally tells you about Lily, then the truth has become impossible to hide.”
My hands trembled.
The next paragraph explained that when I was pregnant, my father discovered someone was searching for the identity of my unborn child. He feared that if the child's identity became known, the trust would become vulnerable. So he created a second layer of protection.
Only one person could activate it.
The child.
My child.
But there was another condition.
The child's biological father had to be identified before the trust could fully transfer.
I stopped reading.
The room seemed to disappear around me.
At the bottom of the page was a name.
A name I recognized.
A name I had seen on the oldest financial documents.
Marcus Hale.
I looked at Detective Shaw.
“Marcus Hale.”
She immediately took the letter.
Her eyes widened.
“This changes everything.”
“Why?”
She pointed to the signature.
“Because Marcus Hale isn't just an investor.”
“Then what is he?”
She looked at me.
“He's listed as the biological father on the original sealed birth record.”
My breath caught.
I looked toward Scott.
He was staring at the floor.
“You knew.”
He shook his head.
“Not everything.”
“You knew enough.”
“I knew Richard was looking for Marcus.”
“Why?”
“Because Marcus disappeared fifteen years ago.”
I felt dizzy.
“Then how is he Lily's father?”
Scott looked at me.
“That's what Richard has been trying to find out.”
My phone suddenly rang.
Unknown number.
I answered.
No voice.
Only breathing.
Then a recording began playing.
Lily crying.
My blood froze.
Then Richard's voice came through.
“Diane.”
I couldn't speak.
“You finally found the name.”
I tightened my grip on the phone.
“Where is my daughter?”
“You want her back?”
“Yes.”
“Then bring me the original trust.”
“I don't have it.”
“You will.”
“How?”
“Because Evelyn left you one final clue.”
I looked around the room.
“What clue?”
Richard laughed softly.
“The suitcase.”
The call ended.
I looked at the old brown suitcase sitting in the corner of Evelyn's bedroom.
The same suitcase she had thrown at my feet.
The suitcase I had believed contained only money and documents.
I walked toward it slowly.
Then I noticed something I had never seen before.
There was a second zipper hidden beneath the handle.
I pulled it open.
Inside was a single photograph.
Me.
My mother.
And a man I had never seen before.
On the back was one sentence.
“Diane, this is the man who saved Lily before she was born.”
I turned the photograph over again.
And when I saw the man's face, I stopped breathing.
It was Marcus Hale.
May you like
Alive.
And standing beside him was my mother.
