Chapter 4 - THE MIDNIGHT VISITORUpstairs in the executive suite, the atmosphere had grown suffocatingly tense. The medical team stood back, looking bewildered and anxious. The little girl sat upright against the pillows, clutching the silver locket in her small fist as if it were a shield.
When Richard burst through the door, she didn't flinch. She simply watched him with those striking, mismatched eyes.
"Everyone out," Richard ordered.
When the doctors and nurses had cleared the room, leaving only Michael standing quietly by the corner, Richard walked slowly to the bedside. He pulled up a velvet chair and sat down, keeping his movements deliberate and non-threatening.
"What is your name?" Richard asked softly, his voice devoid of its usual boardroom ice.
The girl stared at him for a long, agonizing moment before speaking. "My name is Lily. Mommy called me her little star."
Richard felt a sharp pain in his chest. Lily. Named after the wild lilies Helen used to plant by the old greenhouse.
"Lily," Richard repeated, testing the name on his tongue. "You told me earlier that Rose needs her medicine. Where is Rose?"
Lily shook her head, her dark, wet hair brushing her pale cheeks. "Rose can't come. Bad men took her house. They took the books with the numbers. Rose told me to run to the golden door with the lights. She said, 'Find the man with the cold face and give him the music box.'"
"The music box?" Richard frowned. "What music box?"
Lily looked down at the locket in her hand. With a clever, practiced twist of her tiny thumbnail, the back plate of the silver locket popped open. It wasn't just a locket; it was a micro-compartment. Inside lay a tiny, folded memory card—a modern micro-SD card disguised as a decorative trinket.
She held it out on her palm toward Richard.
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"Rose said you locked the door fifteen years ago," Lily whispered, her voice echoing strangely in the quiet room. "Now the key is back. And they are coming for all of us."
Before Richard could reach out to take the micro-card, the heavy oak door of the suite burst inward with a splintering crash.
