Chapter 9 - The Account in the Child's Name
Lily stared at the screen.
"I don't have a bank account."
"You do now," Mara said.
The account had been opened eight years earlier, three months before Lily was born. It sat inside a trust called the Carter Restoration Fund. Samuel Vale was listed as grantor. Elena Carter was listed as beneficiary. The unborn child described in the document was listed as final controller after her ninth birthday.
Lily had turned nine six weeks earlier.
"Samuel created it before he disappeared," Gabriel said.
Samuel shook his head. "I drafted a trust, but not this one. Mine held four hundred thousand dollars to help Elena leave the city."
"The current balance is seventeen million," Mara replied.
"Stolen wages," Lily said.
Elena pulled her closer. "You did not steal anything."
"But it's in my name."
Mara examined the authorization records. "The transfer was automatic. When Northlight's accounts were frozen, a contingency clause moved all assets to the Carter trust. June built an escape route, but she placed it behind Lily's identity."
Gabriel understood the trap. "If we return the money, June claims Lily and Elena controlled the scheme. If we hide it, we become part of the theft. If we touch it incorrectly, every worker's claim becomes harder to prove."
Lily looked at Samuel. "Why use my name?"
"Because June knew my original trust existed. She copied its structure and changed the amount. She wanted a legal container that looked old and innocent."
A courier arrived with an envelope addressed to Lily.
No one had ordered a delivery.
Rafe scanned it, opened it inside a security box, and removed a birthday card. The front showed a cartoon princess driving a black sports car.
Inside was a message.
HAPPY NINTH BIRTHDAY. YOUR FATHER LEFT YOU A KINGDOM. YOUR MOTHER LEFT YOU A LIE. COME TO THE PLACE WHERE SHE FIRST CHOSE HERSELF.
A photograph fell from the card.
It showed Elena at seventeen standing outside a bus station, holding a suitcase. Behind her, several girls from Saint Orison were being loaded into a van.
Lily looked at her mother.
Elena sat down.
"I ran," she whispered.
Samuel reached for her, but she pulled away.
"The night before he rescued us, Corvin offered me a choice. He said I could leave if I identified three girls who planned to escape. I lied and said I knew nothing. Then he put a gun against a boy named Tomas. He said he would kill him unless I chose."
"What did you do?" Lily asked.
"I named three girls who had already escaped the property. I thought Corvin would find no one. But he caught them at the bus station."
The photograph had been taken that day.
"Did they die?"
"I never knew."
Samuel spoke quietly. "Two survived. One disappeared."
Elena covered her face.
Lily did not know how to hold two truths at once: her mother had been terrified and young, and three girls had suffered because of her choice. She wanted a simple answer that would let her forgive or condemn. None came.
Gabriel turned over the photograph. A bus schedule had been written on the back, with one departure circled.
6:10 P.M. SOUTH TERMINAL.
"The place where she first chose herself," Mara said.
"June wants us at the station," Rafe replied.
"No," Elena said. "She wants Lily there."
At five thirty, the South Terminal swarmed with commuters. Gabriel's people occupied ticket counters, exits, platforms, and nearby rooftops. Police were not informed because June had already demonstrated access to official records.
Lily wore a tracking device in her shoe and another sewn into her coat. Elena walked beside her. Gabriel followed twenty feet behind, appearing to be a stranger. Mara watched through cameras.
At platform twelve, a woman in a red scarf sat alone on a bench.
June Mercer looked nothing like David. She was elegant, calm, and nearly sixty, with red hair cut at her jaw. She held a small paper bag of roasted chestnuts.
"Lily," she said warmly. "You have your father's eyes."
Elena stepped between them. "Stay away from her."
June smiled. "You said the same thing to Samuel. It worked for seven years."
"You forged the letters."
"I preserved a useful arrangement."
Gabriel moved closer.
June saw him and sighed. "Always arriving with an army. Samuel preferred doors no one else noticed."
She handed Lily a train ticket.
Destination: Haven Ridge.
"What is there?" Lily asked.
"Square seventeen."
Gabriel's men closed in.
June did not run.
She lifted the chestnut bag and revealed a small switch beneath it.
"The account in Lily's name is connected to twenty-four people wearing devices like this one," she said. "Arrest me, and the money disappears. Kill me, and so do they."
On Mara's monitors, twenty-four new signals appeared across the city.
May you like
One was moving beneath the terminal.
Directly toward Lily.
