Chapter 3 - Ethan Saw the Man Who Had Been Following Me Before I Ever Met His Father, and Suddenly My Homelessness Looked Less Like Bad LuckI denied it at first.
“I don't know anyone.”
Ethan stared at me.
“The man in the gray coat.”
“What man?”
“He was watching you.”
His father stepped closer.
“When?”
“Before Dad arrived.”
I looked down.
“I didn't notice.”
Ethan shook his head.
“He was across the path.”
His father turned toward his security chief.
“Find him.”
I felt uncomfortable.
“I don't need this.”
“You do.”
“I don't want trouble.”
His voice softened.
“You already have it.”
That sentence stayed with me.
Security pulled footage from Central Park.
A man appeared.
Gray coat.
Black hat.
He watched me enter the park.
Then followed me.
Three weeks of footage showed the same man near different locations.
The shelter.
The subway.
The church.
My old workplace.
I stared.
Someone had been watching me.
But why?
I had nothing.
No money.
No family.
No reason for anyone to care.
Then Ethan's father asked:
“Did your parents ever own a business?”
“No.”
“Did your mother work for anyone important?”
“She cleaned houses.”
“Your father?”
“Dead.”
“How?”
“Car accident.”
He stared.
“When?”
“Twelve years ago.”
“Where?”
“Pennsylvania.”
He asked the security chief to check.
The accident report contained one strange detail.
The car belonged to a company.
A company owned by his family.
I looked at him.
“What?”
He studied the report.
“My father owned that company.”
I felt sick.
“Then what does that mean?”
“I don't know.”
But he did.
He simply didn't want to say it yet.
Later that evening, he showed me a photograph.
A warehouse.
My father.
And his father.
Standing together.
I stared.
“I've never seen this.”
“Neither had I.”
“What were they doing?”
“Business.”
“What kind?”
He paused.
“Shipping.”
My father had never told me.
He'd always said he worked construction.
Something wasn't right.
Then the man in the gray coat appeared on security footage.
At the mansion.
Standing outside the gate.
Ethan's father watched him.
“Who is he?”
Security didn't know.
I looked closer.
His face seemed familiar.
Then I remembered.
He had been at the shelter.
Three weeks earlier.
The night I became homeless.
He had been the man who told me:
“You should leave this city.”
I hadn't listened.
I thought he was strange.
Now I wondered whether it was a warning.
Or a threat.
Ethan's father stepped away.
“Lily.”
“Yes?”
“Do you trust me?”
I hesitated.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because you didn't make me earn the right to be warm.”
He smiled.
Then his phone rang.
He listened.
His face changed.
“What?”
I couldn't hear the other side.
He ended the call.
“The man in the gray coat has been identified.”
“Who?”
He looked at me.
“My father's former security chief.”
My blood ran cold.
“Why would he follow me?”
May you like
He stared.
“We're going to find out.”
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