Chapter 11 - THE NIGHT THE HOUSE BECAME A TRAP
I ran upstairs.
Lily was hiding beneath the bed.
I pulled her out.
“It's okay.”
“Daddy!”
She clung to me.
Claire appeared in the doorway.
“Get away from the windows!”
We moved into the bathroom.
Another shot shattered the window.
Lily screamed.
Claire dropped to the floor.
For one moment, none of us moved.
Then someone tried the back door.
I locked it.
Claire stared at me.
“Victor.”
“You're sure?”
She nodded.
“He found us.”
“Why now?”
“Because of the recorder.”
I looked at her.
“What was on it?”
She swallowed.
“The truth.”
“What truth?”
“That I helped him.”
The door downstairs exploded open.
I grabbed Lily.
Claire pulled a gun from her purse.
I stared at her.
“You had a gun?”
She didn't answer.
Footsteps moved through the house.
Slow.
Calm.
Someone was coming upstairs.
Claire looked at me.
“If I tell you to run, take Lily and go.”
“You're coming with us.”
She laughed bitterly.
“You still don't understand.”
“What?”
“I am the reason he knows where you live.”
The footsteps stopped outside the bedroom.
Lily buried her face against my chest.
The door handle turned.
Claire raised the gun.
Then the lights came back on.
The door opened.
No one stood there.
I heard a crash downstairs.
We ran.
The back door was open.
The intruder had escaped.
But on the kitchen table was a small black box.
Inside was a photograph of Lily.
And beneath it, a note.
ONE CHILD. THREE LIARS. ONE TRUTH.
Claire stared at it.
Then she whispered:
“He has Sarah.”
I turned.
“What?”
“Sarah is alive.”
Rachel had been right.
The woman everyone thought had disappeared had not vanished.
May you like
She had been taken.
And now Victor had found a way to use her against us.
