CHAPTER 3 – The Girl Ethan Wanted Buried
Sophia stood frozen in the parking lot, holding the little girl as Emma disappeared inside the black SUV.
The child was shaking.
“What’s your name?” Sophia whispered.
The girl looked up with tearful eyes.
“Lily.”
Sophia’s heart stopped.
That was the name Emma had chosen for her future daughter when they were teenagers.
Before Sophia could move, Ethan stepped closer.
“Give me the child,” he said calmly.
Sophia backed away.
“Why?”
Ethan’s smile faded.
“Because she doesn’t belong to you.”
Lily suddenly grabbed Sophia’s dress and cried,
“He’s the bad man, Aunt Sophia.”
Aunt.
The word hit Sophia like lightning.
Ethan’s face turned dark.
The guests were now watching from the chapel doors. Phones were still recording. Ethan knew he couldn’t make a scene.
So he leaned close and whispered,
“You have no idea what your sister did.”
Sophia stared at him.
“What did she do?”
Ethan’s eyes were cold.
“She kept my daughter from me.”
Sophia felt the world tilt.
Lily was Ethan’s child.
The little girl Emma had hidden for years...
was the daughter of the man Sophia was about to marry.
But then Lily whispered something that changed everything.
“Mommy said he isn’t my daddy.”
Ethan’s jaw tightened.
Sophia looked at him.
“Then why do you want her so badly?”
For the first time, Ethan said nothing.
That was the answer.
Sophia ran.
With Lily in her arms, she escaped through the back of the church and jumped into her car. Her wedding dress tangled around her legs. Her hands trembled so badly she could barely start the engine.
Lily pointed at the glove compartment.
“Mommy said she hid something there.”
Sophia opened it.
Inside was a sealed envelope.
On the front, Emma had written:
“If I disappear again, give this to the police.”
Sophia tore it open.
Inside were photographs.
Bank records.
Hospital files.
And one birth certificate.
Lily’s father was not Ethan.
Her father was Ethan’s older brother...
Nathan.
The brother who had supposedly died in a car crash eight years ago.
Sophia covered her mouth.
Emma had not run away.
Nathan had not died by accident.
And Ethan had spent eight years trying to erase the only child who could inherit the family fortune.
Suddenly, Sophia’s phone buzzed.
A message from an unknown number appeared.
“Sophia, if you want your sister alive, bring Lily to the old Harrington estate before midnight.”
Then another message arrived.
A photo.
Emma tied to a chair.
Behind her stood Ethan, still wearing his wedding suit.
May you like
And under the photo were six words:
“The wedding is not over yet.”
