Chapter 7 - Someone Had Been Watching Lily)
Hannah did not sleep that night.
She sat beside Lily's bed until sunrise.
Every sound in Carrington House seemed louder.
Footsteps in corridors.
Wind against windows.
Heating pipes.
A door closing somewhere downstairs.
For years she had worried about rent, groceries, school fees, and raising Lily alone.
She had never worried that someone was watching her daughter.
Now she could think of nothing else.
At breakfast, Lily stirred cereal in a porcelain bowl.
Jonathan sat across from her.
He had dismissed the kitchen staff because Hannah wanted privacy.
Lily looked at him.
“Are you really rich?”
Jonathan glanced at Hannah.
“I suppose.”
“How rich?”
“Lily.”
“What?”
Jonathan almost smiled.
“Enough.”
“Mommy says people who say enough usually mean too much.”
Hannah hid a smile behind her coffee.
Jonathan leaned forward.
“Your mother has become very wise.”
“She always was.”
The words were simple.
Jonathan felt them anyway.
Lily ate another spoonful.
“Can I call you Grandpa?”
The room became still.
Jonathan looked at Hannah.
She gave the smallest nod.
“If you want to.”
Lily considered.
“Okay, Grandpa.”
Jonathan looked away toward the window.
Hannah saw his eyes shine.
She did not rescue him from the emotion.
Some things deserved to hurt.
After breakfast, Samuel arrived.
He brought news.
The surveillance photographs from Briar Glen had been taken by multiple cameras.
Some were professional.
Others appeared to come from phones.
Vanessa was not working alone.
The fake police officer from the hospital had been identified as Raymond Pike, a private contractor with a history of corporate intelligence work.
He had once worked for a security company.
A company partly owned by Carrington Industries.
Jonathan swore quietly.
“Who hired him?”
“We don't know.”
“Find out.”
Samuel hesitated.
“There is another problem.”
He placed a folder on the table.
Hannah opened it.
Inside were banking records.
Five years earlier, a trust had been created in Lily's name.
Hannah stared.
“I never opened this.”
Jonathan looked over her shoulder.
The trust contained eight million dollars.
Lily dropped her spoon.
“Eight million?”
Hannah closed the folder.
“You're not listening to this.”
“I heard it.”
Jonathan took the documents.
“Who funded it?”
Samuel pointed.
“Initial deposit came from an account established by Caroline before she died.”
Jonathan frowned.
“Caroline died before Lily was born.”
“Exactly.”
Hannah felt cold.
“How could my mother create a trust for a child who didn't exist?”
Samuel looked at her.
“The trust didn't originally name Lily.”
He turned the page.
“It named any future biological child of Hannah Carrington.”
Hannah stared.
Caroline had planned for a grandchild.
Even when Hannah had not.
“She expected me to have children.”
“Yes.”
Jonathan read the clause.
Upon birth of a qualifying descendant, control transfers to the child's parent until age twenty-five unless the parent is deceased or legally incapacitated.
He looked at Hannah.
“You were supposed to be notified.”
“I wasn't.”
Samuel nodded.
“Someone changed the mailing address.”
“To what?”
“Carrington House.”
Jonathan looked toward the hallway.
Vanessa.
Hannah already knew.
Samuel continued.
“The trust was not only money. It also included shares.”
Jonathan's expression changed.
“How many?”
“Enough to matter.”
Hannah looked between them.
“What does that mean?”
Jonathan was silent.
Ethan, standing near the door, answered.
“It means Lily owns part of Carrington Industries.”
Hannah laughed once, disbelieving.
“She is six.”
“Caroline structured it that way.”
“How much?”
Jonathan answered quietly.
“About eleven percent.”
The number changed the room.
Eleven percent of Carrington Industries was worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
Potentially more.
Hannah understood Vanessa's fear.
Not entirely.
But more.
Lily was not merely Jonathan's granddaughter.
She was a shareholder.
A threat.
A living obstacle.
Hannah closed the folder.
“She didn't pour juice on Lily because she thought Lily was poor.”
“No,” Ethan said.
“She poured it because she knew who Lily was.”
Jonathan stood.
“Where is Vanessa?”
Samuel's expression was grim.
“Released.”
“What?”
“The theft complaint is complicated because she had authorized access to parts of the house. Her lawyers argued the files were jointly held records. Until investigators establish more, she is out.”
Hannah felt her stomach tighten.
“Where did she go?”
“We don't know.”
Lily looked up.
“Is the red lady coming back?”
Hannah forced a calm expression.
“No.”
But she did not believe it.
That afternoon, a package arrived at Carrington House.
No return address.
Inside was Lily's original drawing from the school competition.
The house beneath the yellow sun.
Someone had drawn a black circle around one of the windows.
On the back, in neat handwriting, were seven words.
ASK JONATHAN WHO WAS IN THE ROOM.
Hannah showed it to her father.
Jonathan stared at the drawing.
His face changed.
“What?”
He did not answer.
“Dad.”
Jonathan looked toward Lily.
May you like
Then toward Hannah.
“The night your mother died, I wasn't the only person in her room.”
