Chapter 8 - The Lie About Lily
I caught Lily before she reached the side door.
Grant pulled it open.
Behind it, a narrow passage descended beneath the ranger station.
Fresh footprints marked the dust.
Victor entered from outside with blood on one sleeve.
“One of the clinic guards fired from the trees. We have him.”
“Renata has Olivia.”
“And Kessler.”
Grant looked at Lily.
The accusation about her parentage had changed something in the room, but not in the way Renata intended.
Grant knelt in front of his daughter.
“I do not care what any test says. You are my child.”
Lily stared at him.
“Always?”
“Always.”
She touched his face.
Then she pointed toward the passage.
We followed.
The tunnel ended near the mountain road, hidden behind a maintenance shed. Tire tracks led toward the original crash site.
A second vehicle had been waiting.
Victor’s team located it abandoned beside the ravine.
Blood marked the passenger seat.
Olivia’s blood.
Grant walked toward the guardrail.
Two years earlier, he had stood at that same location while rescue crews searched the burned wreckage below.
He had believed his wife died in the flames.
Now he understood the wreckage may not have contained her body at all.
Victor found a trapdoor concealed beneath snow near the road.
It opened into an underground utility station built for emergency mountain communications.
Renata had another room waiting.
Inside, monitors displayed live feeds from the Callahan estate, Cedar Vale, and my mother’s dialysis clinic.
Renata had been watching everyone.
One monitor showed Olivia strapped into a chair.
Kessler stood beside her.
The room in the video appeared nearby.
Grant searched the station.
Lily approached a wall covered with photographs.
Many showed Olivia before the crash.
Others showed Grant meeting executives, politicians, and board members.
At the center was a photograph of a young man holding baby Lily.
Grant recognized him.
“Evan Cole.”
Renata’s younger brother had worked as Olivia’s security driver before disappearing overseas.
The date on the photograph was three weeks after Lily’s birth.
Renata’s claim became more dangerous.
Grant picked up the photograph.
“Evan was with Olivia when Lily was born.”
Victor examined the image.
“He left Callahan security after being accused of theft.”
“Who accused him?”
“Your father.”
Olivia’s voice came through the monitor.
“Grant, Lily is yours.”
Kessler adjusted the camera.
Renata entered the frame.
“Tell him the truth.”
“I did.”
“You loved Evan.”
“He was my friend.”
“He helped you investigate the foundation.”
“Yes.”
“You planned to leave Grant.”
Olivia closed her eyes.
“I planned to take Lily somewhere safe until I knew who we could trust.”
Renata looked toward the camera.
“You hear that, Grant? She was taking your child.”
Olivia opened her eyes.
“I was protecting her from your father.”
Grant stopped breathing.
His father, William Callahan, had died eight months before Olivia’s crash.
Olivia continued.
“William created the foundation accounts. When Evan found the records, William framed him. After William died, the board continued the scheme.”
Renata’s smile disappeared.
“Do not speak about my brother.”
“Evan was going to testify.”
“You used him.”
“I tried to save him.”
Renata slapped Olivia.
Lily cried out.
Grant searched for the room’s location.
The monitor cable disappeared behind a steel panel.
Victor removed it, revealing a door.
Grant opened it.
The room beyond was empty except for a chair and a camera.
The feed had been prerecorded.
Renata was forcing them to chase old images.
A timer appeared on the monitor.
Ten minutes.
Beneath it, a message read:
Choose one.
Olivia Callahan.
Catherine Doyle.
My mother’s name.
Another screen activated.
It showed my mother being moved through a hospital corridor by a man in medical scrubs.
I grabbed the desk.
“No.”
Renata had threatened to end her insurance.
That had never been the real plan.
She intended to take her.
Grant looked between the two feeds.
Renata’s voice filled the station.
“Bring me Lily and the original bathroom recording. Do that, and both women live.”
Lily heard every word.
She stepped toward the microphone.
“I will come.”
I pulled her back.
“No.”
She looked at me with a calmness no child should possess.
“She wants me.”
Grant switched off the microphone.
“She will never have you.”
The timer continued counting down.
Victor traced the hospital feed to a vehicle leaving my mother’s new treatment center.
The other feed containing Olivia had no location data.
Grant faced me.
“We split the team.”
“You go after Olivia,” I said. “I will find my mother.”
“No. Renata expects that.”
“What does that mean?”
“She wants us separated.”
Lily approached the wall of photographs.
She pointed at one image of Renata standing beside the Callahan estate’s charity pavilion.
Then she pointed at Olivia’s monitor.
Grant understood.
The prerecorded room was inside the estate.
Renata had returned to the house.
The place where the gala guests had been removed.
May you like
The place now guarded by men who might still be loyal to the conspiracy.
Continue to the next part: Renata takes Olivia back to the Callahan estate while another team abducts Emma’s mother from her clinic.
