Chapter 7 - Lily Leaves A Trail Behind
Daniel’s heart stopped.
Margaret stood in the library doorway.
“I turned around for two seconds.”
Rachel checked the window.
Still locked.
Eric looked at the floor.
A small service panel behind the bookcase stood open.
Nathan had taken Lily through the internal passage.
Daniel nearly lost control.
Then Rachel grabbed his arm.
“Look.”
On the floor lay one of Lily’s yellow hair clips.
Ten feet farther down the passage was another.
Lily was leaving a trail.
Daniel followed.
One clip.
Then another.
Then a pink bracelet.
Then one tiny sneaker.
He found Lily sitting on the underground staircase.
Alone.
Daniel rushed to her.
“Where is he?”
Lily pointed down.
“The man said he was Uncle Nathan.”
“Did he hurt you?”
“No.”
“What happened?”
“He said he needed you to follow him. I told him kidnapping kids is bad.”
Despite everything, Daniel almost laughed.
“What did he say?”
“He said I was right.”
Nathan had released her and continued deeper underground.
Lily then handed Daniel a folded note.
Nathan had given it to her.
OPEN THE SAFE WITH MOM.
Daniel carried Lily upstairs and refused to let her leave his side again.
Margaret stared at the note.
“The safe requires two family biometrics.”
“Yours and mine?”
Margaret shook her head.
“Mine and Nathan’s.”
Daniel looked at her.
“Then why tell me to open it with you?”
Margaret suddenly understood.
“Because your father changed the biometric records.”
Eric accessed the old security database.
The safe recognized Margaret.
The second authorized profile was labeled NATHAN WHITMORE.
But the stored biometric birth date belonged to Daniel.
Charles had registered Daniel under Nathan’s name.
Why?
Henry knew.
“Because Charles planned to frame Daniel if the archive was ever discovered.”
Daniel stared at him.
His father had built a final insurance policy.
If regulators opened the safe, the system would identify Daniel as the family member accessing it.
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Nathan had not returned only for evidence.
He had returned to stop Charles’s last lie from surviving.
