Chapter 5 - The Night Someone Tried to Erase the Evidence
Security alarms began screaming.
Daniel pulled Lily behind him.
Footsteps echoed downstairs.
Police rushed through the corridors.
A window had been shattered.
The office was destroyed.
The trust documents were gone.
So was the file containing Olivia's medical records.
Daniel understood.
Someone knew they had discovered the truth.
Margaret was nowhere to be found.
Neither was Richard.
The police found one clue.
A black glove.
Inside it was a small piece of paper.
One sentence:
YOU SHOULD HAVE STAYED GONE.
Daniel stared at it.
He wasn't frightened for himself.
He was frightened for Lily.
He moved her into a secure guest suite.
“I'll stay outside the door.”
Lily looked at him.
“Why?”
“Because I don't want you to be alone.”
She studied him.
“You're really my father.”
“Yes.”
“Even though you didn't know me?”
“Yes.”
She nodded.
“Then stay.”
Daniel sat outside her room all night.
At dawn, Lily opened the door.
“You didn't sleep.”
“Neither did you.”
She smiled.
“I'm not used to someone staying.”
Daniel looked at her.
“You'll have to get used to it.”
Later that morning, detectives discovered security footage from a neighboring property.
A car had arrived at the mansion at midnight.
The driver was Charles Whitmore's former assistant.
The passenger?
Margaret.
Daniel watched the footage.
Margaret had not fled.
She had gone somewhere else.
The investigators tracked the car.
It led to an abandoned estate.
Inside was a hidden room.
And on the wall were dozens of photographs.
Lily as a baby.
Lily at five.
Lily at ten.
Lily at fourteen.
Someone had been watching her entire life.
Then Daniel saw one photograph that made his blood run cold.
It showed Lily standing in the mansion foyer.
Taken only two days earlier.
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Underneath it was a handwritten note:
THE GIRL MUST NEVER MEET HER FATHER.
