Chapter 9 - CLARA’S LAST SECRET
I stared at the gun.
“Where did you get that?”
“From Millbrook.”
Mara reached for it.
Clara stepped back.
“I’m not going to hurt anyone unless I have to.”
“That’s exactly what people say before hurting someone,” Mara said.
Clara handed her the gun.
Then looked at me.
“There’s something else.”
I almost laughed.
“Of course there is.”
She flinched.
“I tried to free Lily twelve years ago.”
Lily stared at her.
“What?”
Clara’s voice shook.
“I found the letter. I drove to Millbrook.”
“You never came.”
“I did.”
Lily stepped toward her.
“I would remember.”
“They moved you the day before.”
Dr. Bell had told Clara Lily had died during a seizure.
Clara believed him for almost a decade.
Then two years ago she saw Lily in the back seat of Evan Reed’s car.
“That’s when I started watching your father.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” I asked.
“Because he had photographs of Eva.”
She swallowed.
“At school. At the park. Sleeping in her bedroom.”
My skin crawled.
“He said if I brought police in, she would disappear too.”
“So you let him control you.”
“Yes.”
The honesty shut me up.
Lily asked, “How did I end up beneath your house?”
“Three weeks ago, Evan brought you there.”
Lily’s eyes narrowed.
“I remember the van.”
“Your father called me. He said he needed a place for you for two days. He threatened Eva.”
Clara broke down.
“I should have called the police. I should have told William. Instead I panicked.”
“You locked me underground.”
“I brought you food and water.”
“You kept me there.”
“Yes.”
Clara didn’t defend herself.
“I was wrong.”
Lily’s jaw tightened.
“I begged you.”
“I know.”
“I told you I couldn’t breathe.”
“I know.”
“You walked away.”
Clara covered her mouth.
“I know.”
Lily slapped her.
The sound cracked through the parking lot.
Nobody stopped her.
Clara lowered her hand.
“You deserved to do that.”
Lily started crying.
“So did you.”
Then something happened I didn’t expect.
Clara reached for her.
Lily resisted for one second.
Then collapsed against her.
They both cried.
Not forgiveness.
Not yet.
But something cracked open.
Mara interrupted gently.
“We have forty-three minutes.”
We made a plan.
Dad expected Lily, me, and the cassette.
He didn’t know the cassette in our possession was only a copy.
He also didn’t know Mara had already contacted state police.
But Lily warned us.
“Dad built that house.”
Every wall, crawl space, stair, and hidden room could work in his favor.
“He’ll have a way out.”
I remembered something.
Our basement had a coal chute that opened behind the garage.
Dad sealed it when I was sixteen.
Or claimed he had.
I told Mara.
She sent officers around the property.
Then my phone buzzed.
A photograph arrived.
Eva sitting in my childhood kitchen.
Tears on her face.
Behind her stood Dad.
He was smiling.
The caption read:
THIRTY MINUTES.
Lily looked at it.
Then at me.
“He’s not planning to trade Eva.”
“How do you know?”
“Because when Dad decides someone knows too much…”
May you like
Her eyes filled with fear.
“He doesn’t let them leave.”
