Chapter 7 - The Second Daughter
Ana stumbled beside Daniel.
A bullet had grazed his shoulder.
Marcus rushed forward.
"Who shot you?"
"Shaw's men."
Daniel had received a message supposedly from Claire.
It led him to Westbridge.
A trap.
Ana had followed.
They barely escaped.
Ethan pointed to Elena's name on Lily's drawing.
"Explain."
Daniel looked at Elena.
"Rachel was going to tell you."
"Tell me what?"
"Everything."
Rachel had discovered Elena's identity months before the accident.
She showed Lily a photograph of Elena and explained that somewhere in Texas she had an older sister.
Lily became obsessed with meeting her.
"She called you Ellie," Daniel said.
Elena covered her mouth.
The grief was strange.
She had lost a mother she never knew was hers.
And a sister she never knew she had.
Maybe.
If Lily was alive, Elena refused to think of her in the past tense.
Marcus found something taped beneath the hospital bed.
A flash drive.
It contained surveillance footage from Westbridge.
Lily walking.
Lily coloring.
Lily asking for her father.
Ethan watched until his face crumpled.
Then a woman appeared.
Claire.
She knelt beside Lily.
"We're going somewhere safe."
"Is Daddy coming?"
"Not yet."
"Does he know I'm alive?"
Claire hesitated.
"No."
Lily started crying.
Ethan shut the laptop.
He walked out.
Elena found him in the hallway.
He punched the wall once.
Then leaned his forehead against it.
"I could have found her."
"You didn't know."
"I should have."
"How?"
"I have money. People. Resources."
"You were lied to by people you trusted."
"My daughter waited for me."
Elena gently took his hand before he could strike the wall again.
The same hand that had grabbed her wrist in the library.
Now it trembled in hers.
"We'll find her."
He looked down at their joined hands.
"Why are you doing this?"
"Because she's my sister."
His eyes lifted.
"And because no child should spend three years wondering why her father didn't come."
They stood there longer than either intended.
Then Marcus called them back.
The flash drive contained a second folder.
Financial records.
Victor Shaw had diverted millions through Westbridge.
But one document changed everything.
A guardianship application.
Claire Bennett had applied for emergency guardianship of Grace Miller.
Attached was a DNA test.
Ethan Carter: probability of paternity 99.99%.
Ethan sat down.
Proof.
Lily was alive after the accident.
Claire hadn't imagined it.
Daniel hadn't fabricated it.
The dead child buried in Dallas was not Lily.
"Where did Claire take her?" Ethan asked.
Marcus studied metadata.
One file had been modified six weeks ago.
Location data remained embedded.
Fredericksburg, Texas.
They left immediately.
The address was a small farmhouse.
Empty.
Food still in the refrigerator.
A child's shoes beside the door.
Ethan picked one up.
"Lily."
Elena found height marks on the kitchen wall.
Grace — 7.
Grace — 8.
Grace — 9.
Lily had grown here.
Ethan traced the newest mark.
Then Elena found photographs.
Claire and Lily.
Birthday cake.
A dog.
A bicycle.
Lily had been cared for.
That mattered.
It didn't erase anything.
But it mattered.
On the refrigerator was a drawing.
A man in black.
A woman in white.
A little girl between them.
Elena's chest tightened.
Then Ethan found a note.
Mr. Carter,
If you are reading this, Claire trusted the wrong person.
Take Lily's red box.
Don't let Victor find it.
"Red box?" Elena asked.
They searched.
Nothing.
Then a car pulled into the driveway.
Ethan ran outside.
A woman stepped out.
Claire Bennett.
She looked exhausted.
Older than in the video.
Ethan stopped ten feet away.
"Where is my daughter?"
Claire stared at him.
"You finally know."
"Where is she?"
Claire's eyes filled.
"I tried to keep her safe."
"WHERE?"
"Not here."
Ethan took a step forward.
Claire raised her hand.
"If I tell you, Victor will follow you."
"Let him."
"You don't understand."
"Then make me understand."
Claire looked at Elena.
"Rachel's daughter."
Elena stiffened.
"You knew?"
"Rachel trusted me."
"Then tell us."
Claire slowly reached into her coat.
Marcus tensed.
She removed a red metal box.
"Lily kept this."
Ethan opened it.
Inside were letters.
Dozens.
Every one addressed:
DADDY.
Ethan couldn't speak.
The first began:
Dear Daddy, Claire says you think I'm in heaven.
His vision blurred.
The final letter was dated three days earlier.
Dear Daddy, I think the bad man found us.
Ethan looked up.
"Three days?"
Claire nodded.
"She was with me three days ago."
"Where is she now?"
Claire began to answer.
A red laser dot appeared on her chest.
Elena saw it first.
"DOWN!"
A gunshot shattered the farmhouse window.
May you like
Claire fell.
And Ethan saw blood spreading beneath her.
