Chapter 5 - Traces in the Dark
Deep in the west wing of the mansion, in a small disused storage room hidden behind the linen closets, Lily sat on a wooden chest with a small pocket flashlight wedged between her knees. Page by page, she flipped through Claire’s stolen planner, her small fingers moving with a practiced speed that belonged to someone far older than her six years.
The planner was filled with dates, financial transfers, and private meeting locations across the city. Lily stopped on a page marked with a specific red stamp—the logo of a private medical facility in Switzerland where her mother had allegedly undergone treatment before her fatal accident. Beside the entry was a list of bank account numbers, all originating from an offshore holding company that shared the exact same name as the encryption key stored on her mother's microchip.
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Footsteps echoed down the hallway outside, heavy and slow. Lily instantly clicked off the flashlight, slipping the planner into a narrow gap behind the wooden chest before pulling her knees to her chest in the darkness. The door opened slowly, casting a long beam of light across the dust-moted room. Ethan stood in the doorway, his silhouette framed by the hallway light as he looked down at his daughter sitting alone in the dark.
He knelt beside her, his voice thick with emotion as he asked what she was doing hidden away in the cold room. Lily looked up at him, her eyes pooling with fresh tears as she whispered that she was scared Claire was going to throw her mother's things away next. Ethan pulled her tightly into his arms, swearing to her that no one would ever touch her mother's memory again, completely oblivious to the stolen planner resting just inches behind his heel.
