Chapter 5 - Lily Was Gone, and Roman Finally Lost Control
The estate became chaos.
Men searched every corridor.
Vehicles tore through the surrounding roads.
Helicopters swept over the woods.
Roman personally checked every room.
Nothing.
Then Lily’s red toy car was found in the garden.
That was all.
I collapsed.
Roman caught me before I hit the ground.
“She’s alive.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I do.”
“How?”
He looked at the toy.
“They want us to believe she was taken.”
“And?”
“They left this here.”
He pointed toward the wheels.
A tiny mark had been scratched beneath them.
Three lines.
Lily had made them herself.
I understood instantly.
“She did that.”
Roman nodded.
“My daughter knows how to leave signs.”
I looked at him.
“She learned it from Daniel.”
Roman’s face tightened.
Daniel had taught her before he disappeared.
She had been too young to remember his face.
But she remembered his games.
Roman picked up the toy.
“Then she wants us to find her.”
We traced the marks.
Three lines meant left.
Two circles meant turn.
A star meant someone dangerous.
It led us beyond the garden wall.
Into the woods.
Two hundred yards away, we found a hidden service road.
A black van had been abandoned there.
Inside was Lily’s pink blanket.
But no child.
Roman checked the dirt.
Footprints.
Three adult men.
One child.
The child’s footprints suddenly stopped.
“Why?”
I pointed at the tire tracks.
“She was carried.”
Roman closed his eyes.
For one second he looked broken.
Then he opened them.
“Darius.”
“Yes?”
“Find Victor.”
We followed the trail to an old farmhouse.
Inside we found a dead man.
On the wall was a message:
SHE KNOWS TOO MUCH.
Roman stared.
“They are afraid of a three-year-old.”
“No,” I whispered.
“They’re afraid of what she can prove.”
Then we heard a sound.
A tiny voice.
“Mommy?”
I ran.
A hidden room opened beneath the stairs.
Lily was inside.
Alive.
Terrified.
Holding her red car.
I pulled her into my arms.
Roman crouched beside us.
“Are you hurt?”
She shook her head.
“The bad man talked.”
“What did he say?”
Lily whispered:
“He said the lady was waiting.”
Roman’s expression changed.
“What lady?”
“She wore white.”
My heart stopped.
Roman asked:
“Did you know her?”
Lily shook her head.
“She said Roman’s daddy was coming.”
Roman went completely still.
“My father?”
Lily nodded.
“She said he was not dead.”
Roman stared at me.
Impossible.
Or deliberately designed to sound impossible.
We returned to the estate.
Darius received a call.
The caller claimed to be an informant.
Roman listened.
Then he handed me the phone.
I heard a woman’s voice.
“You need to stop digging.”
I recognized it.
My skin went cold.
“So you know who I am?”
“Yes.”
“Who are you?”
A pause.
Then:
“Someone Daniel trusted.”
The call ended.
Roman took the phone.
“Trace it.”
The signal led to the old Hail warehouse.
We arrived with twelve armed men.
The doors were unlocked.
Inside, we found Victor.
Alive.
He stood beside a woman.
She looked about sixty.
Elegant.
Calm.
And familiar.
Roman stared at her.
“Mother?”
I nearly screamed.
Roman’s mother had supposedly died five years earlier.
The woman smiled.
“You always were stubborn.”
Roman raised his gun.
“You’re dead.”
“I needed everyone to believe that.”
“Why?”
She looked at Lily.
“Because your father was never dead either.”
Silence.
Victor laughed softly.
“Now you understand.”
Roman’s hand tightened around the gun.
His mother continued.
“Your father built the organization. I survived him. Daniel discovered the truth. He threatened to expose us.”
Roman whispered:
“You killed my brother.”
“No.”
She looked at me.
“Victor did.”
Victor smiled.
Roman’s expression became murderous.
His mother continued:
“And your father?”
She paused.
“He is alive.”
Then the warehouse lights went out.
A gunshot sounded.
When the emergency lights returned, Victor and Roman’s mother were gone.
But on the floor sat a single envelope.
Inside was an old photograph.
Roman’s father.
Alive.
Taken three months ago.
May you like
On the back:
COME ALONE.
Related Stories
