CHAPTER 6 – LILY'S FINAL SECRET
CHAPTER 6 – LILY'S FINAL SECRET
Morning sunlight finally broke through the storm clouds.
Emma's fever had dropped overnight.
For the first time since arriving at Mercy Harbor Medical Center, she opened her eyes.
Sadie immediately smiled.
"Good morning, Emmy."
The baby reached weakly toward her sister's voice.
Denise laughed softly.
"I think she knows exactly who saved her."
Sadie kissed Emma's forehead.
"I promised Mommy I'd always carry you."
The words hit Ethan harder than anything else.
Lily had known.
She had known she might not survive.
A knock interrupted the quiet room.
A police detective stepped inside.
"We searched Lily's motel room."
Ethan stood.
"Did you find anything?"
"Almost nothing."
"The room had been cleaned out."
"Too clean."
"But the motel manager remembered something."
"What?"
"Three days before Lily died, she rented a safety deposit box."
"And she left strict instructions."
The detective looked directly at Ethan.
"You were the only person authorized to open it."
An hour later...
They arrived at a small downtown bank.
Inside the safety deposit box sat a weatherproof metal container.
Only three items rested inside.
A silver necklace.
A red flash drive.
And a worn leather journal.
Ethan opened the journal first.
The first page was dated seven years earlier.
"Today I found out I'm pregnant."
His hands began shaking.
Page after page documented Lily's life.
Sadie's first steps.
Emma's birth.
Every motel they had lived in.
Every low-paying job Lily worked.
Every time she thought someone was following them.
Near the end of the journal, Ethan stopped turning pages.
One sentence had stolen his breath.
"Richard doesn't want Cole Industries."
"He wants Project ORION."
Another line followed.
"He believes I still have it."
Then...
the next page had been ripped out.
Cleanly.
Someone had removed it on purpose.
"There's something else."
The detective plugged the red flash drive into his laptop.
A video appeared.
Lily looked painfully thin.
Dark circles surrounded her eyes.
She kept glancing nervously toward the motel door.
"If anyone is watching this..."
Her voice trembled.
"Please protect Sadie and Emma."
"Richard won't stop."
"There are people more powerful than him involved."
She swallowed hard.
"If Ethan ever sees this..."
A sad smile crossed her face.
"Tell him..."
Suddenly—
Someone pounded violently on the motel door.
Lily looked up in terror.
The camera shook.
Another bang.
The door burst open.
Lily screamed.
The recording cut to black.
No one in the room spoke.
Ethan replayed the final five seconds again.
And again.
On the third viewing...
he noticed something everyone else had missed.
Just before the camera fell...
a gold signet ring flashed beneath the intruder's sleeve.
Engraved on it was the unmistakable crest of...
Cole Industries.
The man who had hunted Lily...
May you like
hadn't been working alone.
Someone inside Ethan's own company had helped destroy her life.
