CHAPTER 3 – SHE WAS NEVER SUPPOSED TO SURVIVE
The prison doors slammed shut.
Steel bars crashed into place.
Red emergency lights painted the corridors in blood-colored flashes.
Every inmate was forced to kneel.
Every inmate...
Except Raven.
She stood frozen, gripping Lily's hand so tightly that her knuckles turned white.
"Stay behind me," she whispered.
Lily stared at her in confusion.
"You know me... don't you?"
Before Raven could answer, four heavily armed officers stormed into the yard.
But something felt wrong.
They weren't wearing ordinary correctional uniforms.
No badges.
No names.
Only black tactical gear.
The prison warden frowned.
"I didn't authorize a transfer team."
One of the masked officers smiled.
"You don't have to."
Then...
He pulled out a silenced pistol.
POP.
The warden collapsed before anyone could react.
Chaos exploded.
Inmates screamed.
Guards scattered for cover.
The masked men ignored everyone else.
Their rifles were aimed at only one person.
Lily.
"Target confirmed."
"Eliminate the witness."
Lily froze.
"Witness?" she whispered.
"I don't understand!"
Raven didn't hesitate.
She threw herself in front of Lily just as bullets shattered the concrete behind them.
"RUN!"
The two women sprinted through the smoke-filled corridor while alarms echoed throughout the prison.
Behind them...
Monica watched everything.
For the first time in years, the prison queen wasn't laughing.
She was thinking.
Then she saw something fall from Lily's pocket.
A folded newspaper clipping.
She picked it up.
The headline made her blood run cold.
"BILLIONAIRE COUPLE FOUND MURDERED... THEIR ONLY DAUGHTER MISSING FOR 22 YEARS."
Below the headline...
Was Lily's childhood photograph.
Monica's hands began to shake.
"No..."
"This can't be..."
Meanwhile, Raven dragged Lily into an abandoned laundry room and slammed the door shut.
Lily was breathing so hard she could barely speak.
"Tell me the truth."
"Who am I?"
Raven looked into her eyes.
The same eyes she had kissed goodbye twenty-two years earlier.
With tears streaming down her face, Raven finally confessed.
"You were never the daughter of a murderer."
"You were born the heir to the Hawthorne fortune."
"Your parents didn't die in a robbery..."
"They were executed."
"And I didn't kidnap you..."
"I saved you."
Lily's entire world shattered.
"But... who wants me dead?"
Raven closed her eyes.
"Because if you're alive..."
"Someone loses ten billion dollars."
Before Lily could ask another question...
A slow clap echoed from the darkness.
Both women turned.
A man in an expensive black suit stepped into the room.
He smiled as if he had been waiting for this reunion his entire life.
"How touching."
"I've been searching for you both for twenty-two years."
He removed his leather gloves...
Revealing the exact same family crest tattoo that was engraved inside Lily's silver locket.
Then he whispered with a chilling smile:
"Welcome home..."
May you like
"...my daughter."
To be continued...
