Chapter 3
I took Lily to my private library.
It was the only room in the mansion that still felt like mine.
No guests.
No champagne.
No flowers.
Just leather chairs, old books, a fireplace, and the wall of photographs I had never removed.
Lily stopped when she saw them.
Hundreds of photos lined the shelves.
My parents.
Me as a child.
Missing posters.
Age-progressed images of her face.
Newspaper clippings.
Private investigator reports.
Birthday cards I had written and never mailed.
Her hand slipped from mine.
She walked toward the wall slowly.
“That’s me?”
Her voice barely worked.
I nodded.
“That’s what they thought you might look like at ten.”
She touched another photo.
“And this?”
“Fifteen.”
Another.
“Eighteen?”
“Yes.”
She turned.
“You kept all of this?”
“I never stopped looking.”
Her face crumpled.
She pressed a hand to her mouth.
I stepped closer, but stopped before touching her.
I was terrified of overwhelming her.
“I looked everywhere,” I said. “After the accident, they said you were probably swept into the river. But I didn’t believe it. Your body was never found.”
Lily stared at me.
“Accident?”
My chest tightened.
“You don’t remember?”
She shook her head.
“I remember rain sometimes. In dreams. A woman singing. A boy yelling my name. Then nothing.”
A boy yelling my name.
I closed my eyes.
That was me.
I had screamed until my throat bled.
I opened a drawer and took out the original family photograph.
The one from my wallet was a copy.
“This was taken two weeks before the crash.”
She took it with both hands.
Our parents stood behind us.
My father’s hands on my shoulders.
My mother crouched beside Lily.
Little Lily wore a pink coat and the silver locket.
Her hair was tied in two bows.
She was smiling like the world had never touched her.
“I had bows,” she whispered.
“You hated them.”
Her eyes lifted.
“I did?”
“You pulled them out every chance you got. Mom kept tying them back in.”
A tiny laugh escaped her.
Then broke into a sob.
“I don’t know these people.”
“They knew you.”
She looked at the photo again.
“They loved me?”
“So much.”
Her shoulders shook.
“I spent my whole life thinking maybe nobody wanted me.”
I couldn’t hold back then.
I stepped forward and pulled her into my arms again.
“I wanted you,” I said. “Every day.”
She cried against me.
Not softly.
Not prettily.
She cried like someone whose whole life had been lonely and had finally found a place to put it down.
I cried too.
I didn’t care.
The door opened quietly.
Marcus stood there with my attorney, Grace Holloway.
Grace took one look at Lily and softened.
“Daniel.”
I wiped my face.
“What did you find?”
Marcus hesitated.
“Victoria’s driver is gone. Her phone is off. We have officers en route to her apartment, but there’s something else.”
“What?”
He looked at Lily.
Then back at me.
“The staffing agency never assigned Lily here.”
Lily stiffened.
“What do you mean?”
Marcus held up a tablet.
“The agency says they received a direct request from Victoria’s assistant for one extra maid matching Lily’s description.”
My jaw tightened.
Grace stepped in.
“That means Victoria targeted her.”
Lily went pale.
“Why would she do that?”
I looked at the locket around her neck.
I already knew the answer.
“She recognized something.”
May you like
Grace nodded grimly.
“And if she knew who Lily was before tonight, then framing her for theft may have been the least dangerous part of her plan.”
