Lily waited until they were home before opening Button.
Her father wanted to examine the bear himself.
Lily refused.
“You said it was mine.”
He smiled.
“You're right.”
They sat together at the kitchen table.
Claire stood behind them.
Daniel remained near the window.
Lily turned Button over.
The first hidden pocket had been repaired after the red key was removed. The stitching looked old, but beneath it was another seam she had never noticed.
She touched it.
Her father leaned closer.
“Careful.”
Lily used a small pair of scissors.
One cut.
Then another.
The lining opened.
A tiny folded photograph slid out.
Lily unfolded it.
Her grandmother stood beside Thomas Reed.
But this picture was different.
They were outside the courthouse.
Between them was a young man Lily did not recognize.
On the back was a date.
The date was three weeks before her father's disappearance.
Claire stared at the photograph.
“That isn't possible.”
“Why?”
“My mother told me she didn't know Reed.”
Her father looked at Daniel.
Daniel shook his head.
“I've never seen that man.”
Lily turned the photograph over again.
A number was written beneath the date.
42.
“The library room.”
Her father nodded.
“Maybe Reed used it as a meeting place.”
Claire sat down.
“I need to call my mother.”
Her father stopped her.
“Not yet.”
“Why?”
“Because if she doesn't want us to know something, calling her may warn whoever is protecting her.”
Lily frowned.
“Protecting her?”
“Or watching her.”
Daniel moved away from the window.
“We need to find Reed first.”
The phone rang.
Everyone froze.
Claire answered.
It was her grandmother.
“I know you found the photograph.”
Claire closed her eyes.
“How?”
“Because I put it there.”
Lily leaned forward.
“Why?”
Her grandmother's voice trembled.
“Because I couldn't tell you in person.”
Her father took the phone.
“Tell us now.”
“I helped Reed.”
“With what?”
“The second ledger.”
Daniel stepped closer.
“Where is it?”
“I don't have it anymore.”
“Who does?”
Silence.
Then she said, “Victor Keller.”
Her father shook his head.
“Keller is in prison.”
“Yes.”
“How could he have it?”
“Because he had a copy before his arrest.”
Claire looked at Lily.
“What was in the ledger?”
Her grandmother answered.
“Names.”
“Whose names?”
“People who paid him.”
Lily's father looked at Daniel.
“That changes everything.”
“Yes,” her grandmother said.
“Why didn't you give this to the police?”
“I tried.”
“What happened?”
“They told me the ledger was fabricated.”
Daniel frowned.
“Who told you?”
Her grandmother gave a name.
A senior investigator assigned to the case.
Daniel immediately reached for his phone.
“I know him.”
Her father looked at him.
“Is he trustworthy?”
Daniel did not answer.
That was answer enough.
The call ended.
Lily sat very still.
“Grandma isn't the person who started everything.”
“No,” her father said.
“She was trying to fix it.”
“Yes.”
“Then why did she say she knew before all of us?”
“Because she knew the fraud existed before I did.”
Lily thought about the photograph.
There was still one missing piece.
“Who is the man standing with her and Reed?”
Her father examined the image.
“I don't know.”
Daniel took it.
He stared.
Then his face changed.
“I do.”
“Who?”
Daniel swallowed.
“Your father's older brother.”
Lily blinked.
“I don't have an uncle.”
Her father looked at Daniel.
“You never told her?”
“I thought he was dead.”
Lily looked at her father.
“You had a brother?”
He nodded slowly.
“His name was Michael.”
“Where is he?”
“I don't know.”
“Why didn't you ever tell me?”
Her father looked ashamed.
“Because Michael disappeared when I was young. We were told he died.”
Daniel shook his head.
“He didn't.”
The room became silent.
“Then who was buried?” Claire asked.
“No one,” Daniel said.
The words were barely audible.
“His death certificate was fake.”
Lily felt the story growing larger again.
Not because of another secret.
Because the old secrets had been connected all along.
Her father's brother.
Her grandmother.
Thomas Reed.
Victor Keller.
The property records.
The photograph.
The missing ledger.
It was no longer simply a case about stolen houses.
It was a network that had existed long before Lily was born.
Her father stood.
“We find Michael.”
“How?”
Daniel looked at the photograph.
“Start with the courthouse.”
They returned to the old courthouse that afternoon.
The records office had recently reopened after renovations.
Daniel requested archived files.
After nearly an hour, a clerk brought them a box.
Inside were property transfers from twenty-five years earlier.
Lily's father searched through them.
Then he stopped.
A signature.
Michael's.
The document transferred ownership of a small parcel to a company that later became part of Keller's network.
“This is where it started,” he whispered.
Lily looked at the date.
Twenty-five years.
Before her father had married Claire.
Before Lily was born.
Before Button.
Her father found another document.
This one had a handwritten note.
MICHAEL REFUSED TO SIGN THE FINAL TRANSFER.
Daniel leaned closer.
“That explains why he disappeared.”
Her father shook his head.
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because Michael's signature appears on a document dated two years later.”
Lily's father stared.
Michael had been alive.
And someone had used his name.
A clerk suddenly approached.
“Excuse me.”
Everyone turned.
The clerk held a folder.
“This was misfiled.”
He handed it to Lily's father.
Inside was a photograph of Michael.
Underneath was an address.
Lily recognized it.
“The farmhouse.”
Her father looked at her.
“The place where we stayed.”
Daniel's face went pale.
Someone had been there before them.
On the back of the photograph was a handwritten message.
HE KNOWS YOU HAVE THE SECOND SEAM.
Lily touched Button.
Her father immediately pulled her close.
A car engine started outside.
Daniel looked through the window.
A dark vehicle was leaving the courthouse parking lot.
“That's our car.”
“What?”
“The same car that followed us from the library.”
Her father grabbed the folder.
“Then we know where we're going.”
“Where?”
“The farmhouse.”
They rushed outside.
But Lily stopped on the courthouse steps.
Something lay near the curb.
A small metal key.
Not red.
Black.
Attached to it was a paper tag.
ROOM 42.
Click Here to continue read next: PART11: The Search for Michael Led Lily Back to the Farmhouse, Where a Hidden Room Contained the One Piece of Evidence Everyone Had Missed
The Wedding Was Supposed to Be a Happy Day Until Lily Heard a Name Nobody Wanted Spoken Again
Part 10 of 16
