Chapter 8 - Lily’s Secret

Victor drove back to the mansion faster than Monroe liked.

Lily was in the breakfast room with Ethan.

The little boy was stacking pancakes into a tower.

For one brief second, the scene looked ordinary.

Then Victor entered carrying his father’s letter.

Lily knew immediately.

“What happened?”

Victor placed the paper on the table.

“Did you know Amelia?”

Lily stopped breathing.

Ethan looked between them.

Victor’s voice remained controlled.

“Before you worked here.”

Lily lowered her eyes.

“Yes.”

Victor stared.

“How?”

“My mother worked for her.”

Victor went still.

Lily continued.

“Before I became a maid here, my mother, Rosa, worked in this house.”

“I knew that.”

“You knew she was staff.”

“You didn’t know Amelia trusted her.”

Victor sat slowly.

“Tell me everything.”

Lily looked at Ethan.

“Not in front of him.”

Victor asked a guard to take Ethan into the garden room.

When the door closed, Lily spoke.

“My mother found Amelia crying in the kitchen one night.”

“Amelia told her someone had been watching Ethan.”

“She was scared.”

“Why didn’t your mother tell me?”

“She tried.”

Lily’s voice tightened.

“She called your office three times.”

“Serena intercepted the messages.”

Victor closed his eyes.

Of course she had.

Lily continued.

“Two days before Amelia died, she gave my mother a package.”

“She said if anything happened, hide it.”

“Where?”

“My mother never told me.”

“Then why does my father’s recording say the housekeeper knew?”

“Because she did.”

Victor stared at her.

“Your mother is dead.”

Lily nodded.

“She died eighteen months after Amelia.”

“Cancer.”

“So the location died with her?”

Lily reached beneath her uniform collar.

She removed a tiny silver locket.

“No.”

Victor stared.

“My mother gave me this before she died.”

Inside the locket was a piece of paper.

Three words.

BENEATH THE ANGEL.

Victor looked at Lily.

“What does that mean?”

“I never knew.”

Then Detective Monroe entered the room holding a photograph from the mausoleum files.

It showed Amelia standing in the Hale cemetery.

Behind her was a stone angel.

Victor looked at the locket again.

“Beneath the angel.”

Lily whispered.

“That’s where she hid it.”

Before anyone could move, a security alarm sounded.

One guard shouted from the hall.

“Mr. Hale!”

Victor ran.

The garden room doors were open.

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The guard who had been watching Ethan was unconscious.

And Ethan was gone.