“Of course.”
My stomach turned.
“You stole my daughter because of money?”
“No.”
Her voice became colder.
“We stole your daughter because of what your daughter would eventually inherit.”
I closed my eyes.
“How much?”
“Everything.”
My investigator looked at me.
I put the call on speaker.
Tessa continued.
“Your parents created a trust for their grandchildren. But there was one condition.”
I already knew.
“The child had to be alive.”
“Yes.”
My hands began shaking.
“If you knew Lily was alive, why hide her?”
“Because once you found her, the money would become hers.”
“And you wanted control of it.”
Tessa laughed.
“Exactly.”
I looked at Lily.
Six years old.
Small.
Innocent.
Used as a financial weapon by people who were supposed to protect her.
Then Tessa said something else.
“And there’s one more thing, Rowan.”
“What?”
“You should ask Maren why she knew about Lily before you did.”
My heart stopped.
“Maren died six years ago.”
“I know.”
“So how could she know?”
Tessa’s voice dropped to a whisper.
“Because Maren didn’t die six years ago.”
The call ended.
I stared at my phone.
My investigator slowly lowered his laptop.
“Rowan…”
“What?”
“We need to go back.”
“Why?”
He turned the screen toward me.
“I found a death certificate.”
I stared at the name.
Maren Whitmore.
