Chapter 11 - The Underground Garage
Marco found blood near the service elevator.
Not much.
Enough to terrify me.
We followed the security cameras.
Victor’s men had dragged Sophie underground.
Police flooded the building.
The garage gates locked automatically.
Marco and I reached level B3.
A black limousine smashed through a barrier.
“There!”
We ran.
The vehicle stopped near the exit.
The rear door opened.
Sophie fell onto the concrete.
The limousine sped away.
I reached her.
“Sophie!”
She coughed.
“I’m okay.”
Her lip was bleeding.
“Did he hurt you?”
“No.”
“What did he say?”
She grabbed my jacket.
“Daniel, Noah found something before Lily was born.”
“What?”
“A financial account.”
Marco crouched beside her.
“What account?”
“It paid doctors, judges, police officers.”
“Victor’s?”
“No.”
Sophie looked terrified.
“My father was covering it up, but he wasn’t running it.”
“Who was?”
“He wouldn’t say.”
Police sirens echoed.
Sophie continued.
“He said Amelia found Noah’s evidence.”
“The sealed file?”
“Yes.”
“That’s why she died.”
Sophie nodded.
“And the final page?”
“What final page?”
“Amelia told my father she hid one final page somewhere he could never reach.”
Marco and I looked at each other.
The envelope.
We had read the medical report and letter.
But maybe there was another page hidden inside.
We rushed home.
The envelope looked ordinary.
Marco cut the seams.
Inside the cardboard backing was a folded sheet.
One page.
Covered in Amelia’s handwriting.
Daniel,
If you have reached this page, then Victor has already blamed himself.
That is what the real man behind this wants.
I looked at Marco.
“What?”
I kept reading.
Victor has done terrible things.
But he did not order my death.
The order came from someone inside our own family.
My heartbeat hammered.
Sophie stood beside me.
“Keep reading.”
I did.
The man in the photograph was not standing behind Sophie and me by accident.
He was meeting someone.
Someone Daniel trusts.
Someone who helped alter Lily’s identity.
Someone who has been close enough to watch her every day.
I looked up.
Rachel.
My sister was upstairs with Lily.
I dropped the page.
“No.”
Marco was already running.
We raced upstairs.
“Rachel!”
No answer.
Lily’s bedroom door stood open.
Empty.
On the bed was the blue ribbon.
May you like
And a note.
You should have burned the photograph.
