Chapter 5 - Betrayal at the Children's Center
Lily climbed.
Her small, frozen fingers gripped the splintered wood of the rafters. She dragged herself onto the narrow beam, her heart hammering against her ribs like a trapped bird.
"Hey! There she is!"
A beam of a flashlight hit her face, blinding her.
"Don't move, kid!" the heavier thug shouted, lunging up the stairs.
Lily didn't look down. She scrambled forward on her hands and knees along the beam. The wood groaned under her weight, but she kept going, reaching the small window at the peak. She pushed the broken frame open and squeezed herself through, falling onto the slippery tin roof of the lean-to below.
She slid down the metal, screaming as her hands scraped against the rusted edges, before crashing into a pile of wet leaves and mud at the side of the barn.
Pain flared through her ankle, but the adrenaline overrode it. She scrambled to her feet, limping heavily, and ran into the darkness of the woods.
She had only one goal now. She had to get to Emma.
If these bad men were looking for her, they would find Emma too. She had to protect her little sister. It didn't matter if she was tired, hungry, or hurt. Big sisters do hard things.
Two hours later, gasping for breath, her clothes torn and covered in mud, Lily arrived at the gates of the Oakridge Children’s Center.
She had run the entire way, her injured ankle throbbing with a dull, agonizing heat.
She climbed the iron gates, her small hands slipping twice before she finally tumbled over the top, landing hard on the concrete driveway.
She dragged herself to the heavy wooden front doors of the center and began to pound on them with both fists.
"Emma! Emma!" she screamed.
The door swung open, revealing Mrs. Gable, the stern, cold-eyed director of the center. She looked down at Lily with a mixture of shock and immediate disgust.
"Lily Morgan? What on earth are you doing here? You know you aren't allowed on the property—"
"Please!" Lily cried, grabbing Mrs. Gable’s skirt. "The bad men are coming! They're looking for me! I have to get Emma! We have to hide!"
Mrs. Gable’s eyes narrowed. She had received a very interesting phone call an hour ago from a high-ranking member of the Sterling family's rival corporation, offering a massive sum of money if Lily Morgan "disappeared" before Julian Sterling could find her.
"Oh, sweet child," Mrs. Gable said, her voice shifting into a sickeningly sweet tone that made Lily's skin crawl. "Come inside. Let's get you warm. Emma is right upstairs."
Lily trusted her. In her exhaustion and terror, she let Mrs. Gable pull her into the warm foyer.
But as the heavy door clicked locked behind her, Lily heard the sound of a key turning from the outside.
Mrs. Gable stepped back, a cold, mocking smile on her face as she pulled a cell phone from her pocket.
"I have her," Mrs. Gable said into the phone. "Send the transport. And make sure my payment is wired immediately."
Lily backed away, her heart dropping into her stomach. "Where... where is Emma?"
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"Emma isn't here, you stupid girl," Mrs. Gable sneered, locking the inner office door. "She was transferred weeks ago. And you are going somewhere where no one will ever find you."
Lily was trapped.
