Chapter 4 - Lily Asked for Me
I did not sleep.
I stayed at my sister Megan’s apartment because Detective Cole advised me not to go home.
By sunrise, my name was everywhere.
Some stories called me heroic.
Others repeated Vanessa’s version.
One entertainment site claimed I had been “seen flirting” with Ethan Carter hours before the incident.
A photograph accompanied the article.
I was standing ten feet behind Ethan while serving champagne.
Apparently that counted.
Megan slammed my phone facedown.
“Stop reading.”
“I’m not reading.”
“You’re reading.”
“I’m verifying how insane people are.”
“You have enough evidence.”
I laughed despite myself.
Then my phone rang.
Detective Cole.
I answered immediately.
“Rachel?”
“Yes.”
“Lily is physically okay.”
My knees weakened.
I sat.
“Thank God.”
“She has bruising on both wrists and mild dehydration.”
“How long was she inside?”
“We don’t know.”
I closed my eyes.
“Did she say?”
“Not yet.”
Cole paused.
“There’s something else.”
My stomach tightened.
“What?”
“Lily has asked for you.”
I stared at the wall.
“Me?”
“She’s refusing to speak to most people.”
“What about Ethan?”
“She talks to him.”
“Then why me?”
“You were the person who opened the compartment.”
That answer should have been simple.
It did not feel simple.
Cole continued.
“A child interview specialist is meeting her later. Ethan asked whether you’d come to the hospital first.”
I hesitated.
Megan stared at me.
I knew what she wanted me to say.
No.
Protect myself.
Do not become deeper involved in billionaire-family chaos.
Then I remembered Lily saying, Don’t close it again.
“I’ll come.”
At the hospital, security escorted me through a private entrance.
Ethan was waiting outside Lily’s room.
He looked nothing like the polished man from the gala.
No tuxedo.
No controlled smile.
Just jeans, an old sweater, and eyes that looked like he had not slept.
“Rachel.”
“Mr. Carter.”
“Ethan.”
I nodded.
“How is she?”
“Better physically.”
He looked through the small window in the door.
“She woke up asking whether the wall was closed.”
My chest tightened.
He rubbed his face.
“I need to thank you.”
“You don’t.”
“Yes.”
“No.”
He looked at me.
“You heard her.”
“Anyone would have.”
He shook his head.
“Apparently not.”
I did not know what that meant.
Then he said, “Vanessa told staff Lily had started hiding when she got upset.”
“Behind the painting?”
“I never knew that space existed.”
I stared at him.
“You own the house.”
“It belonged to my grandparents. There are old service passages everywhere.”
That explained the compartment.
Not why Vanessa knew it.
“Who else knew?”
“I’m finding out.”
He stepped aside.
“Lily wants you.”
I entered slowly.
Lily sat in the hospital bed coloring.
Her wrists were wrapped in soft bandages.
The moment she saw me, she dropped the crayon.
“Rachel.”
I smiled.
“Hi.”
She held out her arms.
I looked at Ethan.
He nodded.
I sat beside her.
Lily immediately leaned against me.
“You came.”
“You asked.”
“Vanessa said you wouldn’t.”
I felt Ethan stiffen behind me.
“When did she say that?”
Lily looked down.
“Before.”
I kept my voice soft.
“Before the party?”
She nodded.
Ethan approached.
“Sweetheart, what did Vanessa say about Rachel?”
Lily frowned.
“She said servers go away.”
I glanced at Ethan.
Maybe that meant nothing.
Maybe everything sounded sinister now.
Then Lily whispered, “She said if I told, Rachel goes away first.”
My skin prickled.
“Why would she say my name?”
Lily did not answer.
Ethan looked equally confused.
I had never met Lily before the gala.
Or so I thought.
Then I remembered something.
Two weeks earlier, my catering company had worked a smaller luncheon at the Carter home.
Children had not attended.
I had spent most of the afternoon downstairs.
But once, while carrying plates through the garden, I had seen a little girl watching me from an upstairs window.
I waved.
She waved back.
Had that been Lily?
I asked.
Her face brightened.
“You made bunny.”
My heart stopped.
During that luncheon, I had folded a napkin into a ridiculous rabbit for one of the servers.
Later, I left it on an outside table.
Apparently Lily had found it.
“You kept it?”
She nodded.
“Vanessa threw it.”
Ethan closed his eyes.
Something about that tiny detail hurt.
Detective Cole arrived with a child-interview specialist named Nora.
They did not interrogate Lily in front of us.
They asked Ethan and me to wait outside.
Forty minutes later, Nora emerged.
Her expression was careful.
“Lily disclosed multiple incidents involving the compartment.”
Ethan gripped the back of a chair.
“How many?”
“She cannot give reliable numbers.”
“What did she say?”
Nora looked at Detective Cole before answering.
“She said Vanessa called it the quiet place.”
I felt sick.
“She said she was put there when she cried, refused food, asked for her father, mentioned her mother, or touched Vanessa’s belongings.”
Ethan’s face collapsed.
“Mentioned Claire?”
Nora nodded.
Claire.
Lily’s biological mother.
“She also described being told that if she complained, adults would think she was bad.”
Ethan sat down.
I had never seen a grown man look smaller.
Detective Cole asked whether he had noticed changes in Lily.
He stared at the floor.
“She stopped talking about Claire.”
“When?”
“Months ago.”
“Anything else?”
“She started asking permission to eat snacks.”
My chest tightened.
“She used to climb into my bed when I traveled. Then suddenly she stopped.”
“Why?”
“I thought she was becoming independent.”
His voice broke.
“She was scared.”
No one answered.
Nora said Lily had mentioned something else.
A red folder.
Vanessa had found Lily holding it in her office the afternoon of the gala.
“What was inside?” Ethan asked.
Lily did not know.
But she remembered her own name.
And Claire’s.
Ethan went still.
“What?”
Nora repeated it.
“Lily said she saw her name and her mother’s name.”
Ethan looked at Detective Cole.
“There are trust documents connected to Claire’s estate.”
My stomach dropped.
Cole’s eyes sharpened.
“Where are they kept?”
“In my office safe.”
“Does Vanessa have access?”
“No.”
Ethan hesitated.
“At least she shouldn’t.”
He pulled out his phone.
Called someone at the mansion.
No answer.
Called again.
Then his face changed.
“What?”
He listened.
“When?”
Another pause.
“Do not touch anything.”
He ended the call.
Detective Cole stood.
“What happened?”
May you like
Ethan looked at us.
“The safe is open.”
