CHAPTER 4: The Woman They Buried Alive
The front door slammed shut.
Lily's father rushed upstairs, locking the basement door behind them.
"You must never open that tape," he pleaded.
But before he could say another word...
Three loud knocks echoed through the house.
BANG.
BANG.
BANG.
Her mother looked through the window and nearly collapsed.
"It's her..."
Standing on the porch was the woman in the faded blue coat.
Behind her were two detectives.
And in her trembling hands...
She held a thick folder stamped CONFIDENTIAL.
Lily watched from the staircase as the woman whispered through the door.
"I didn't come here for revenge."
"I came for my daughter."
The room fell silent.
Her father slowly opened the door.
For nearly ten seconds, nobody spoke.
Finally, the woman looked directly at him.
"You promised you would protect Emma after the fire."
"You promised you would tell Lily the truth when she turned seven."
"So why did you tell the world I died?"
Lily froze.
Emma.
That was the name written on the old newspaper clipping.
Her father lowered his head in shame.
"It wasn't supposed to happen like this."
The woman opened the folder.
Inside were hospital records, adoption papers, police reports, and photographs from the night of the fire.
One picture made Lily's blood run cold.
The house hadn't burned by accident.
It had exploded.
Another photo showed masked men dragging Emma into a van while firefighters searched the burning ruins.
The detectives exchanged uneasy glances.
One of them finally spoke.
"We've reopened the case."
"The explosion was staged."
"The kidnapping was real."
Emma slowly knelt in front of Lily.
Tears streamed down her face.
"I searched for you every single day."
"I was told you had died with the house."
Lily couldn't breathe.
She looked back at the people she had called Mom and Dad her entire life.
"Were you lying to me?"
Her adoptive mother burst into tears.
"We never wanted to replace your mother."
"We were trying to save you."
Just then...
The television in the living room suddenly switched on by itself.
Static filled the screen.
Then a security video appeared.
The timestamp read:
Seven years ago.
Everyone stared in horror as a masked man walked into the burning house...
Holding a little girl in his arms.
It wasn't Lily.
There was another child.
An identical little girl.
The screen went black.
At the bottom, a single message appeared in white letters:
"You only found one daughter. The other one is still missing."
Emma screamed.
Lily's father turned pale.
And the detective whispered the words no one was prepared to hear.
"There were twins."
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The nightmare they thought had ended seven years ago...
Had only just begun.
