Chapter 12 - Lily Remembers The Last Night
The facility sat outside Stowe, Vermont, surrounded by pine trees and early snow.
It looked peaceful.
That made the truth inside feel crueler.
Lily Cole lived in a private wing under the name Lily Mercer.
She was twenty-six.
She had Ethan’s dark hair.
And Richard Sterling’s unmistakable gray eyes.
Gabriel stopped when he saw her.
Lily stared back.
Then she began to cry.
“You look like him.”
Gabriel’s throat tightened.
“Our father?”
She nodded.
Sarah quietly stepped away, giving them space.
Lily’s condition was not what they expected.
She could walk.
She could speak.
But fourteen years earlier, she had suffered a traumatic brain injury in a car crash.
Her memory came in fragments.
Some years were clear.
Others vanished.
Ethan had told staff she had no living relatives.
“He visited twice a year,” Lily said.
“What did you call him?” Gabriel asked.
She looked down.
“Dad.”
The word hurt him.
“Did he hurt you?”
Lily hesitated.
“No.”
Then she added, “But he lied.”
Gabriel sat beside her.
“What do you remember?”
She closed her eyes.
“A woman.”
Sarah leaned forward.
“Eleanor?”
Lily nodded.
“She came to our house.”
Gabriel’s face tightened.
“What happened?”
“They argued.”
Her breathing changed.
“She told Dad I deserved the truth. He told her she would ruin everything.”
Gabriel reached for her hand.
“What else?”
Lily began trembling.
“A car.”
Sarah’s heart sped up.
“Whose car?”
“I don’t know.”
“A black sedan?”
Lily nodded.
“My dad put me in it.”
“Ethan?”
“Yes.”
“What happened?”
Lily pressed both hands to her temples.
“He was angry.”
The room became quiet.
“He kept saying Eleanor was going to destroy us.”
Gabriel swallowed.
“Then?”
“We drove.”
Her voice weakened.
“I remember rain.”
Sarah and Gabriel exchanged a look.
Rain.
Eleanor died in a storm.
Lily continued.
“We stopped near a road.”
Gabriel’s face drained.
“What road?”
“I don’t know.”
“There was a broken guardrail.”
Sarah stopped breathing.
Lily looked at Gabriel.
“I saw a car below.”
Silence.
“I asked Dad if someone was hurt.”
Tears ran down her face.
“He said, ‘Not anymore.’”
Gabriel closed his eyes.
Lily began crying harder.
“And then we crashed.”
Her own accident happened the same night.
Ethan had been driving Lily away from the scene after Eleanor’s car went through the guardrail.
He lost control.
Lily suffered the brain injury.
Ethan survived.
Then he hid her.
Not only because she was Richard Sterling’s daughter.
Because she was a witness.
Gabriel leaned forward and covered his face.
Sarah put one hand gently on his shoulder.
Lily watched them.
Then she whispered something neither expected.
“There was someone else in Dad’s car.”
Gabriel looked up.
“Who?”
Lily frowned, struggling to pull the memory forward.
“A woman.”
Sarah’s pulse jumped.
“Do you remember her name?”
Lily shook her head.
Then she stared at Sarah’s bandaged hand.
A frightened expression crossed her face.
“She wore gloves.”
Sarah felt cold.
“What kind?”
“Black.”
Lily’s eyes filled with sudden recognition.
“She came here once.”
Gabriel leaned closer.
“When?”
“Last year.”
“Who was she?”
May you like
Lily whispered the name.
“Victoria.”
