Chapter 8
My mother's name was Rachel Morgan.
She died when Lily was two.
Cancer.
At least, that was what I had been told.
Diane had attended the funeral.
She had brought flowers.
She had hugged me.
She had told me my mother would want me to move forward.
Now, sitting in my kitchen at three in the morning, I couldn't stop thinking about her final words.
Ask your mother.
I opened the old box where I kept her things.
Letters.
Photographs.
A scarf.
A wedding ring.
Nothing else.
Then I noticed something.
The bottom of the box was loose.
I pulled it out.
Underneath was an envelope.
My name was written on it.
Claire. Open only if Lily is ever threatened.
My hands began shaking.
I opened it.
My mother's handwriting filled the first page.
Claire,
If you are reading this, something happened that I hoped never would.
Diane will try to convince you that Lily is valuable because of money.
That is only half the truth.
I kept reading.
The trust was created because of something your grandfather discovered.
A company owned by the Morgan family had been hiding money from its employees for years.
Your grandfather found it.
He threatened to expose them.
Diane's father threatened him.
Then he died.
My heart stopped.
My grandfather's death had always been called an accident.
My mother continued.
Your grandfather left evidence.
He placed it inside a trust.
The trust was originally meant to protect you.
Then Lily was born.
The trust changed.
I turned the page.
The final beneficiary became Lily.
Not because of money.
Because your grandfather knew Diane would eventually come for what she could control.
I stared at the words.
Then I found the sentence that made me stop breathing.
Lily's father knows the truth.
Nathan.
I read further.
He did not abandon you.
I asked him to leave because I was afraid.
Diane had already threatened our family.
She knew about the trust.
She knew Lily would inherit it.
She wanted control before Lily was old enough to understand.
My eyes filled with tears.
Then came the final paragraph.
Ethan knows more than he has admitted.
But he was not the one who started this.
His father was.
I stopped.
Ethan's father.
The same man who had left the recording.
The same man who had apparently tried to expose Diane.
I kept reading.
He discovered Diane was working with his brother.
Your grandfather found evidence that money was being transferred through a company connected to Diane's family.
Ethan's father tried to stop it.
Then he died.
I looked at the date.
Three days before his death, he had sent my mother a letter.
The letter was missing.
But there was one line quoted.
If anything happens to me, trust Nathan. Not Diane.
I closed my eyes.
Suddenly Ethan's father's recording made sense.
He hadn't simply been documenting Diane.
He had been trying to protect Lily.
I called Nathan.
He answered immediately.
“I know,” he said.
“You knew?”
“Your mother contacted me years ago.”
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“She begged me not to.”
I swallowed.
“What happened to her?”
Silence.
Then Nathan said:
“She was afraid Diane would kill you.”
The room went cold.
“What?”
“Not physically at first.”
“What does that mean?”
“She meant Diane would destroy your life.”
He paused.
“Your mother knew Diane was trying to isolate you from everyone who could help you.”
I looked toward the hallway.
Lily was asleep.
“I need to know everything.”
Nathan agreed.
“Then meet me tomorrow.”
“Where?”
“The cemetery.”
“Why?”
“Because your mother didn't leave the final evidence with me.”
“Where did she leave it?”
Nathan whispered:
“With the person Diane never knew about.”
“Who?”
He hesitated.
“Your mother's sister.”
I froze.
“My mother was an only child.”
May you like
Nathan's voice dropped.
“That is what Diane wanted you to believe.”
