Chapter 6 - Lily Was the Missing Third Key to a Secret System, and My Greatest Fear Was Realized When the Attackers Came for HerI couldn't accept it.
Lily was seven.
She didn't know anything about old family technology.
She barely understood why adults became quiet when she entered rooms.
Yet someone had built the entire conspiracy around her.
I asked Isabella:
“How?”
She didn't know.
Dominic did.
He looked at the old records.
“Your father and Isabella's father created the original network.”
“For what?”
“Protection.”
“Then what happened?”
“Power.”
The system became something else.
It could control infrastructure.
Communications.
Money.
Security.
Transport.
If someone controlled it all, they could effectively control a city.
The final activation required bloodline authentication.
Three descendants.
Isabella.
Me.
And Lily.
That explained why my career had been destroyed.
Why my designs had been stolen.
Why someone watched Lily.
They needed her.
The first attempt came that evening.
A black SUV approached our safe house.
We were ready.
The doors locked.
Security activated.
The attackers tried the windows.
Lily sat beside me.
“Daddy.”
“Yes?”
“Don't let them take me.”
“I won't.”
She reached into her backpack.
She pulled out her toy race car.
She opened the bottom.
Inside was a tiny chip.
I stared.
“Where did you get that?”
“A man gave it to me.”
“What man?”
“Your friend.”
I knew.
Dominic.
He had planted it months earlier.
For protection.
Or for tracking.
I didn't know.
I looked at him.
He raised his hands.
“I was trying to find out who was watching her.”
Lily's voice was quiet.
“He said he was protecting me.”
I believed him.
For now.
The attack ended.
One man was captured.
He gave us a location.
An abandoned laboratory.
We went.
Inside were photographs of Lily.
From age two.
Three.
Four.
Five.
Six.
Seven.
Every birthday.
Every school.
Every doctor visit.
I felt sick.
Then I found a video.
Lily as a baby.
My father holding her.
I stared.
My father had been dead before she was born.
Impossible.
Unless the video was older.
It wasn't.
The timestamp was one year after his supposed death.
My mother entered the frame.
She spoke to him.
“I don't want her involved.”
He answered:
“She is already involved.”
My blood froze.
My father was alive.
Or had been.
Then another message appeared.
HE IS COMING HOME.
Isabella stared.
“Your father.”
I nodded.
The final battle wasn't against Samuel Voss.
It was against our families.
The people who had built this.
May you like
The people who had decided children were keys.
We had to stop them.
Related Stories
