Chapter 13 - What Diane Told Lily
Diane said she had stood beside Lily’s bed for less than two minutes.
Lily was pale beneath the hospital lights, oxygen tubing under her nose, her small fingers wrapped around a stuffed rabbit.
“Where’s Dad?” she had asked.
Diane was angry.
At Maya.
At Evan.
At Rachel.
At Ava.
At the possibility that the Hale family was about to become public scandal.
So she answered a dying child with cruelty.
“Your father is on a trip with someone else.”
Maya closed her eyes.
Evan made a sound like he had been punched.
Diane cried harder.
“I immediately regretted it.”
Maya’s voice was barely audible.
“What did Lily say?”
“Nothing.”
“What did she say?”
“She turned her face away.”
Maya pressed both hands against the table.
The detective asked, “Did you take the photograph?”
“No.”
“Did anyone else enter?”
Diane hesitated.
“Yes.”
“Who?”
“Elena Mercer.”
Ava’s mother.
Ava stood.
“My mother was in Lily’s room?”
“She followed me from the waiting area. We argued in the hallway. I told her to leave. I thought she did.”
The detective was already making calls.
Ava’s mother did not answer.
Her apartment was empty.
Her passport was missing.
But security footage from St. Matthew’s showed a blonde woman in a gray coat entering Lily’s room at 4:46 a.m.
She stayed seventy-two seconds.
Then she left carrying her phone.
At 4:47, Lily’s heart rate spiked sharply.
Maya gripped the edge of the desk.
“What did she say to my daughter?”
No one knew.
At 5:02, Lily lost consciousness.
At 5:18, Elena used a parking garage exit.
At 6:10, she sent the ICU photograph to a hidden cloud account.
And three days later, someone used that account to schedule the scandal release.
Evan looked at Ava.
“Where would she go?”
Ava’s face was gray.
“She has a cabin near Lake Arrow.”
The detective stood.
“We’ll contact local authorities.”
Ava grabbed his arm.
“No. If she thinks police are coming, she’ll run.”
Maya stared at her.
“You know how she thinks?”
“She raised me.”
Ava picked up her keys.
“I can get her to answer.”
Evan stepped forward.
“I’m coming.”
Maya surprised them both.
“So am I.”
Evan shook his head. “Maya—”
“My daughter was the last person Elena spoke to before she lost consciousness.”
Maya grabbed Lily’s lavender letter from the table.
“I want to hear what she said.”
Three hours later, as they climbed the mountain road, Ava’s phone rang.
MOTHER.
Ava answered on speaker.
May you like
Elena did not say hello.
She said, “If Maya is with you, tell her Lily knew everything before she died.”
