Chapter 4 - The Secret Behind Lily’s Three Weeks on the Streets
The name on the page was Sarah Bennett.
For several seconds, I couldn’t understand what I was seeing.
“That’s wrong.”
Rachel sat beside me.
“It isn’t.”
“It has to be.”
Daniel remained across the room.
He didn’t interrupt.
“Sarah Bennett was my mother’s best friend.”
Rachel nodded.
“I know.”
“She left New York.”
“She came back.”
“When?”
“Three days after you disappeared.”
My throat closed.
“She’s been searching for you since.”
I stood too quickly.
The room tilted.
“No.”
Rachel reached toward me.
I moved away.
“You don’t understand.”
“Then tell me.”
I looked at Daniel.
He immediately walked toward the door.
“I’ll give you privacy.”
I stopped him.
“No.”
He turned.
I didn’t know why I wanted him there.
Maybe because he had seen me at my worst and had not looked disgusted.
Maybe because Ethan trusted him despite everything.
Maybe because I had started trusting him too, just enough to frighten me.
“My mom died eleven months ago,” I said.
Daniel’s expression softened.
“She was sick?”
I nodded.
“Cancer.”
The word still hurt.
My mother, Anna Harper, had been thirty-seven.
She laughed loudly in movie theaters.
Burned toast almost every morning.
Sang badly while cleaning our apartment.
Then she got sick.
At first everyone said treatment.
Then everyone said time.
Then nobody said anything.
Sarah had been there during the worst months.
She drove Mom to appointments.
Stayed with me during hospital nights.
Promised my mother she would look after me if anything happened.
Then Sarah’s father had a stroke in Oregon.
She left temporarily.
My mother died two weeks later.
Because Sarah wasn’t legally my guardian yet, I was placed with my uncle Paul.
“He was my mom’s brother.”
“Was he dangerous?” Rachel asked.
I shook my head.
“Not exactly.”
That was the worst part.
People expected monsters.
Paul wasn’t one.
He didn’t hit me.
He didn’t starve me.
He just didn’t want me.
He had a tiny apartment.
A girlfriend who hated children.
Bills he couldn’t pay.
He reminded me constantly that everything cost money.
Food.
Electricity.
School supplies.
He called me “an extra mouth” once.
Then apologized.
But some words don’t go back into your mouth after you say them.
Three weeks earlier, I overheard him arguing with his girlfriend.
“She has to go somewhere else.”
“Where?”
“I don’t care.”
“You’re legally responsible.”
“Not forever.”
“We can call social services.”
“They’ll take her.”
“That’s the point.”
I packed before sunrise.
I didn’t wait to hear the ending.
Rachel listened without interrupting.
“Why didn’t you contact Sarah?”
“She didn’t answer.”
“When?”
“The first two days.”
Rachel looked at her notes.
“Her father died that week.”
I closed my eyes.
“She was flying back and forth.”
Everything inside me collapsed.
I had believed Sarah had abandoned me.
She had been burying her father.
“And Uncle Paul?”
“He assumed social services had picked you up.”
Daniel’s jaw tightened.
“He didn’t report a thirteen-year-old missing?”
“No.”
Rachel’s voice was controlled.
“Sarah discovered Lily was gone when she returned.”
I looked toward the window.
Three weeks.
Three weeks sleeping beneath bridges.
Eating crackers from convenience stores.
Pretending not to be scared.
All because I believed nobody wanted me.
“Does Sarah want me?”
Rachel smiled slightly.
“She is downstairs.”
My heart stopped.
“What?”
“She flew back from Oregon last night after we contacted her.”
I stood frozen.
“Do you want to see her?”
I couldn’t answer.
Then the door opened slightly.
A woman stood there.
Her hair was longer than I remembered.
Her eyes were red.
She looked thinner.
“Lily?”
One word.
That was all.
I ran.
Sarah caught me.
I hadn’t cried when my mother died.
Not properly.
Not because I didn’t love her.
Because sometimes grief is so large your body refuses to let it out.
I cried then.
I cried for Mom.
For sidewalks.
For cold nights.
For thinking Sarah had left.
For being thirteen and pretending I wasn’t afraid.
“I’m sorry,” Sarah whispered.
“No.”
“I should have finished the guardianship papers sooner.”
“No.”
“I should have checked.”
“You didn’t know.”
“I should have known.”
We held each other until my legs hurt.
Daniel quietly left.
Later, Sarah and Rachel began discussing legal arrangements.
Temporary guardianship.
Court approval.
School enrollment.
Counseling.
Words that used to terrify me suddenly sounded like doors opening.
Then I remembered Ethan.
I found Daniel outside his room.
“How is he?”
“Better.”
“Can I see him?”
“He’s been asking every twenty minutes.”
Ethan was sitting upright.
My old coat remained folded beside him.
“You came back.”
“You sound surprised.”
“I thought you’d disappear.”
“Apparently I’m bad at that.”
I told him about Sarah.
Not everything.
Enough.
He smiled.
“So you have somewhere.”
“Maybe.”
“That’s good.”
“It is.”
Then his smile disappeared.
“What?”
I asked.
He looked toward the door.
“Dad says Marcus probably followed me.”
“Why were you alone?”
Ethan picked at the blanket.
“I wasn’t supposed to be.”
“Ethan.”
He sighed.
“I heard Marcus talking on the phone.”
“About what?”
“He said Dad was going to lose everything.”
I frowned.
“What does that mean?”
“I don’t know.”
“Then what happened?”
“I told Marcus I heard him.”
Ethan stared at his hands.
“He told me I misunderstood.”
“Did you?”
“No.”
“How do you know?”
“Because he grabbed me.”
My stomach tightened.
“I ran.”
He had slipped away during a charity event near the park.
Marcus had followed.
Ethan climbed down a stone embankment trying to hide.
His backpack caught.
The strap had been cut when Marcus tried pulling it away.
Ethan fell.
Marcus apparently fled when voices approached nearby.
“Why didn’t he just come get you afterward?”
“I don’t know.”
I did.
Because witnesses had appeared.
Maybe Marcus assumed Ethan would be found.
Maybe he hoped the cold would erase the problem.
I didn’t say that.
Daniel entered.
He looked relieved to see Ethan talking.
Then his phone rang.
His expression changed.
“Excuse me.”
He stepped into the hall.
Something was wrong.
I followed.
Daniel ended the call.
“What?”
“Marcus used an access code last night.”
“To what?”
“My company’s private data servers.”
I didn’t understand why that mattered.
Daniel explained.
His corporation was preparing a massive acquisition.
Confidential information worth hundreds of millions.
If leaked, it could destroy the deal.
“Marcus wasn’t just security?”
“He had emergency access permissions.”
“So Ethan heard him talking about stealing information?”
“Possibly.”
A detective approached.
“Mr. Mercer.”
He held a tablet.
“We found something.”
Video footage showed Marcus entering an underground parking garage.
He wasn’t alone.
A woman followed.
Daniel stared at the screen.
His face changed.
I had never seen him look that way.
Not even when Marcus entered Ethan’s hospital room.
“You know her.”
Daniel didn’t answer.
The detective zoomed in.
A blonde woman in an expensive coat stepped beside Marcus.
They spoke.
Then got into the same vehicle.
Ethan had come into the hallway behind us.
He saw the image.
“Dad?”
Daniel slowly turned.
“Who is she?” I asked.
Ethan answered.
“That’s Caroline.”
“The person from your office?”
He nodded.
Daniel looked devastated.
Not angry.
Betrayed.
“Caroline Shaw has worked for me for fifteen years.”
The detective swiped to another image.
Financial records.
Messages.
Security logs.
“Then you should prepare yourself.”
Daniel looked at him.
“Why?”
“Because Marcus Vale wasn’t working alone.”
The detective placed the tablet in Daniel’s hands.
“And based on what we found, getting Ethan out of the way may not have been their final plan.”
Daniel’s eyes moved across the screen.
Then suddenly lifted toward his son.
“What final plan?”
The detective answered quietly.
May you like
“They were planning to come after you next.”
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