Chapter 4
I almost struck Julian.
Instead, I gripped the edge of the table.
“I never approved experiments on children.”
“Your signature is on every authorization.”
“Forged.”
“That won’t matter if the records become public.”
Marcus entered the room.
“It will matter when we prove who forged them.”
Julian laughed bitterly.
“You think Nora was smart enough to build this alone?”
“Give us a name,” Marcus said.
Julian looked toward me.
“Dr. Conrad Vale.”
Our uncle.
My father’s older brother.
Conrad had helped create Vale Industries before leaving to run a network of private pediatric clinics.
He had attended Amelia’s funeral.
He had also recommended the doctor who treated me after her death.
The same doctor prescribed the medication Nora gave me every morning.
“Conrad told Nora to poison Amelia?” I asked.
“I never heard him say it directly.”
“But you knew about Lily.”
“Nora brought me into the hidden room after the fake accident. She said Conrad wanted Lily alive.”
“And you agreed?”
“She threatened my children.”
Julian had a wife and two teenage sons in London.
“Why didn’t you come to me?”
“You were drugged, grieving, and surrounded by Nora’s people. Conrad controlled the company board. Crane controlled the police.”
“So you abandoned Lily to protect your sons.”
Julian’s eyes filled with tears.
“I visited whenever I could. I brought her food.”
Lily’s videos showed him entering the room.
They did not show him freeing her.
“You had four years,” I said. “You chose yourself every day.”
Federal agents raided Conrad’s clinics.
Files had been destroyed hours earlier.
Conrad disappeared from his home.
His passport remained in a desk drawer, but a private helicopter had left a Vale Industries hangar that morning.
The flight records were erased.
Marcus froze the company accounts.
The board immediately called an emergency meeting.
Several directors accused me of creating a public scandal days before my wedding.
Nora had spent years placing loyal people around me.
Even in jail, her plan continued.
My temporary removal as chief executive passed by one vote.
Conrad was named acting chairman despite being missing.
I no longer controlled my own company.
Lily watched the news from her hospital bed.
“Did I make you lose everything?”
I switched off the television.
“You brought back the only thing that mattered.”
“But that company was Grandpa’s.”
“A company can be rebuilt.”
She looked down at her hands.
“Nora said money was why you loved me.”
“Nora lied.”
“Mommy said love means someone sees you even when you have nothing to give them.”
“Your mother was right.”
Lily hesitated.
“I took something from Nora’s office.”
From inside her pillowcase, she removed a brass key.
She had stolen it weeks earlier after hearing Nora and Conrad argue.
A number was stamped into the metal.
Marcus identified it as a key to a private vault at Union Continental Bank.
A federal warrant opened the vault.
Inside were research files, blood samples, and recordings of Conrad discussing illegal trials.
There were also letters written by Amelia.
One was addressed to me.
Ethan,
If Nora has already reached you, do not trust your medicine. Conrad knows I found the children. He knows Lily heard us arguing. Take her somewhere safe.
Amelia had tried to warn me.
Nora must have intercepted the letter.
Another file contained security footage from the night Amelia died.
It showed Conrad entering our estate twenty minutes before Nora prepared the poisoned tea.
He left through the servants’ entrance while my wife lay dying.
The evidence proved his involvement.
But the vault also contained a recent photograph.
It showed Lily asleep in her hidden room.
The date was only two weeks earlier.
Someone stood beside her bed.
The face was partially hidden, but I recognized the bracelet.
It belonged to my personal physician, Dr. Elise Warren.
Elise entered Lily’s hospital room twice every day.
I ran toward the corridor.
Lily’s door stood open.
Her bed was empty.
On the pillow lay a syringe and a note.
May you like
She saved you once.
She will not do it again.
