CHAPTER 3: THE BULLET WAS NEVER MEANT FOR HIM
The gun never wavered.
Margaret Lancaster's perfectly manicured finger rested on the trigger as if pulling it would mean nothing more than signing another business contract.
The room froze.
Rain hammered against the broken windows.
Anna struggled to sit up in the hospital bed, her face pale with terror.
"Ethan..." she whispered. "Don't let her take Lily."
Margaret laughed.
A cold, empty laugh.
"You still don't understand, Anna."
"I've already won."
Lily hid behind Ethan, clutching the back of his jacket.
"Daddy..."
The word escaped her lips before she could stop it.
Daddy.
The single word shattered Ethan's heart.
For twenty years, he had believed he would never have a family.
Now, in the span of a single night...
He had discovered a daughter...
Recovered the woman he never stopped loving...
And realized his own mother had built her empire on lies.
He stepped in front of Lily.
"If you want someone," Ethan said, staring directly into Margaret's eyes, "take me."
Margaret sighed.
"You always were weak."
She slowly aimed the gun at Ethan's chest.
Anna screamed.
"No!"
BANG!
The shot echoed through the mansion.
Lily cried out.
Ethan instinctively looked down...
There was no blood.
Instead...
Margaret staggered backward.
A crimson stain spread across her shoulder.
Another gunshot had come from behind her.
Standing in the doorway was an elderly man wearing an old security uniform.
His silver hair was soaked by the rain.
His hands trembled as he lowered the smoking pistol.
"That's enough, Margaret."
Everyone stared.
Ethan recognized him immediately.
"Mr. Harris?"
The old caretaker nodded.
"I've stayed silent for twenty years."
"But I won't let you destroy another family."
Margaret glared at him with pure hatred.
"You traitor."
Mr. Harris shook his head.
"No."
"I've finally become an honest man."
Police sirens echoed in the distance.
Margaret smiled.
Not with fear.
With confidence.
"You think you've won?"
She reached into her pocket and threw a thick envelope onto the floor.
Hundreds of photographs scattered across the room.
Ethan bent down to pick one up.
His blood ran cold.
Every photograph showed Lily.
Walking to school.
Playing in the park.
Sleeping beside her mother.
Someone had been watching them.
For years.
Another photo...
Anna inside this very room.
Another...
Ethan leaving his office.
Another...
The wedding rehearsal from yesterday.
Mr. Harris whispered,
"Oh... my God."
Margaret laughed again.
"You still don't understand."
"I wasn't hiding Anna."
"I was protecting her."
Ethan's voice cracked.
"Protecting her from who?"
Margaret looked directly at him.
"You."
Silence.
Then...
She pulled one final photograph from inside her coat.
Unlike the others...
This one had been taken twenty-one years ago.
A young Ethan stood beside three men wearing expensive suits.
One of them had his arm around Ethan's shoulder.
The man's face was circled in red ink.
On the back, only four handwritten words appeared.
YOUR FATHER IS ALIVE.
Ethan stopped breathing.
His father...
Richard Lancaster...
Had supposedly died twenty-three years earlier in a private plane crash.
Margaret smiled through the blood running down her shoulder.
"You've spent your whole life blaming the wrong monster."
Before anyone could react...
The lights went out.
Darkness swallowed the mansion.
Then...
Three red laser dots appeared on Ethan's chest.
One.
Two.
Three.
Snipers.
A deep male voice echoed from outside.
"Richard Lancaster sends his regards."
Glass exploded inward.
Lily screamed.
And Ethan realized...
Everything he had discovered tonight...
Had only been the beginning.
May you like
END OF CHAPTER 3...
TO BE CONTINUED...
