Chapter 8
Lily Trent stood with both hands wrapped around the gun.
She was fifteen years older than Chloe.
Maybe twenty-seven.
Her face looked nothing like Jason’s.
Until she frowned.
Then I saw it.
The shape around the eyes.
The tension in the jaw.
Jason stared at her as if he had seen a ghost.
“You’re dead.”
Lily laughed bitterly.
“No. That was Mom.”
Detective Reed stood ten feet away.
“Lily, lower the weapon.”
She ignored him.
Her eyes stayed on Jason.
“You left me.”
Jason loosened his grip on me.
Just slightly.
I pulled away.
He caught my sleeve.
Lily lifted the gun higher.
“Touch her again.”
“Lily,” Reed warned.
“You really don’t remember me?” she asked.
Jason’s face hardened.
“You were three.”
“I remember the smoke.”
His expression changed.
“I remember Mom screaming.”
Silence.
“I remember you outside.”
My blood froze.
Jason whispered, “You couldn’t.”
“I saw you.”
Reed shifted carefully.
“Lily, we need him alive.”
She looked at the detective.
“You need him alive.”
Then back at Jason.
“I don’t.”
I stepped forward.
“Lily.”
She looked at me.
For the first time, I saw tears in her eyes.
“You sent the messages.”
“Yes.”
“You called me.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you come to police?”
“I did.”
“When?”
“Years ago.”
Her laugh had no humor.
“Nobody believed the traumatized little girl with nightmares.”
Reed said, “I believe you.”
“Now.”
“Now we have evidence.”
Lily’s arms trembled.
Jason saw it too.
He suddenly shoved me toward her.
I stumbled.
The gun shifted.
He ran.
“Stop!”
Jason sprinted toward the trees.
Reed chased him.
Officers rushed from both sides.
Jason disappeared down an embankment.
Lily lowered the gun.
I realized she was crying.
“I wanted him to look at me.”
I stepped closer.
“I wanted him to know I remembered.”
“You did.”
She looked at me.
“He married you because of your mother.”
“I know.”
“No.”
Her voice broke.
“You don’t know everything.”
Sirens and shouting echoed through the trees.
I looked toward where Jason had vanished.
“Then tell me.”
Lily wiped her face.
“Your mother saved me.”
I stopped.
“What?”
“The night of the fire.”
My chest tightened.
“She was there?”
Lily nodded.
“I was supposed to sleep at my grandparents’ house. Mom sent me away because she planned to leave Dad.”
Rebecca’s plan.
“But I got sick. Grandpa brought me home early.”
She closed her eyes.
“I remember Mom yelling at him to take me back.”
Jason arrived.
The argument began.
Then the fire.
“My mother came to meet Rebecca?”
“Yes.”
“How do you know?”
“She pulled me out.”
My knees weakened.
“Sarah ran inside when she saw the smoke.”
Lily nodded.
“She carried me outside.”
Tears filled my eyes.
My mother had saved Jason’s daughter.
Years later, Jason came into her daughter’s life.
“I didn’t remember her name until I was older,” Lily said. “My grandparents told me a stranger rescued me.”
“Then how did you find out?”
“I found Mom’s letters.”
“Letters to my mother?”
“Yes.”
Reed returned, breathing hard.
“No visual. Search teams are moving.”
Jason had escaped again.
Reed looked at Lily.
“Gun.”
She handed it over.
Immediately.
He checked it.
Then stared at her.
“It isn’t loaded.”
Lily shook her head.
“I didn’t come to kill him.”
Reed exhaled.
“That was a dangerous way to prove it.”
“I needed him to stop.”
“How did you find this place?”
“Miranda.”
We all stared at her.
“You’re working with Miranda?” I asked.
“No.”
“Then how?”
“She contacted me six months ago.”
“Why?”
“Because she wants Michael gone too.”
Nothing made sense anymore.
“Miranda helped him.”
“For years.”
“She helped fake his death.”
“Yes.”
“She helped him find me.”
“Yes.”
“And now she wants him arrested?”
Lily gave a tired smile.
“Families are complicated.”
That might have been the understatement of the century.
Police found Mr. Sanders alive.
He was taken to the hospital.
I returned with him.
Chloe cried when she saw me.
“You came back.”
“Always.”
I held her until she finally relaxed.
Noah remained stable.
Doctors expected him to recover.
Those words kept me alive.
Late that night, Reed entered with Lily.
Chloe stared.
“Who is she?”
I looked at Lily.
“Your sister.”
Chloe’s eyes widened.
“My what?”
Lily looked even more terrified than she had with Jason.
“Half-sister.”
Chloe looked at me.
Then at Lily.
Then toward Noah.
“Dad had another daughter?”
“Yes.”
“Before us?”
“Yes.”
“Does she hate us?”
Lily’s face crumpled.
“No.”
Chloe studied her.
“Do you hate Dad?”
Lily didn’t answer immediately.
Finally, she said, “I hate what he did.”
Chloe nodded.
“I do too.”
Then my daughter did something none of us expected.
She walked across the room and hugged Lily.
Lily froze.
Her arms slowly wrapped around Chloe.
And she started crying.
For a moment, nobody spoke.
Then Reed’s phone rang.
He answered.
His posture changed.
“Where?”
He listened.
“When?”
His eyes went to Lily.
“Understood.”
He hung up.
“They found Jason?”
“No.”
“What happened?”
He looked at Lily.
“Your grandparents’ house.”
Her face went white.
“What about it?”
“Someone broke in.”
“When?”
“Tonight.”
Lily immediately grabbed her phone.
“My grandmother is in assisted living. The house is empty.”
Reed nodded.
“Nothing valuable appears missing.”
“Then why go there?”
Lily knew before he answered.
“The second tape.”
Jason had said there were two.
Lily looked at me.
“My mother hid things at Grandma’s.”
“Where?”
“I don’t know.”
Reed asked, “What did the second tape contain?”
Lily shook her head.
“I never found it.”
I remembered Jason’s reaction.
The second tape mattered more than the first.
“What could be worse than Rebecca accusing him of murder?”
Lily looked at me.
“Proof that Michael wasn’t working alone.”
“Miranda.”
“No.”
“Then who?”
Lily hesitated.
“My mother wrote one name over and over in her letters.”
“What name?”
She looked toward Mr. Sanders’s hospital room.
“David.”
My breath caught.
Mr. Sanders’s first name was David.
“No.”
Lily nodded.
“Rebecca said David was the one who handled the money.”
I stared through the glass.
Mr. Sanders lay in a hospital bed.
The man my father trusted.
The man who kept my father’s secrets.
The man Jason had supposedly kidnapped.
Suddenly, something Miranda had shouted made sense.
Ask your lawyer why the storage unit stayed hidden.
I turned to Reed.
“He wasn’t Jason’s hostage.”
“We don’t know that.”
“He could have been helping him.”
Reed’s face hardened.
We moved toward Sanders’s room.
But the bed was empty.
A nurse ran toward us.
“He just left.”
“What do you mean?”
“He said the police approved his discharge.”
“We didn’t.”
Reed immediately reached for his radio.
I looked at the empty bed.
On the pillow sat a folded note.
My name.
I opened it.
Emily,
Your father was right about Michael.
He was wrong about me.
If you want the truth about your mother’s death, come to the place where she died.
Alone.
Lily read over my shoulder.
May you like
Then whispered,
“He has the second tape.”
