Chapter 15 - Lily's Secret
Ethan found Lily in the kitchen.
She was preparing coffee.
“You're leaving.”
She looked up.
“How did you know?”
“Your resignation letter.”
Lily smiled.
“I thought you'd be busy.”
“I was.”
He sat at the table.
“Why are you leaving?”
“Because the Sterling mansion doesn't feel like the same place anymore.”
Ethan looked around.
“I understand.”
Lily hesitated.
Then she said:
“I didn't tell you everything.”
Ethan's expression changed.
“What?”
“Before your accident, I heard Alexander and Richard arguing.”
“About what?”
“They were afraid of your mother.”
Ethan froze.
“My mother?”
Lily nodded.
“She had apparently discovered something before she died.”
“What?”
“I don't know.”
“Then why tell me now?”
“Because I found this.”
She placed an old envelope on the table.
It carried Ethan's mother's handwriting.
Inside was a photograph.
Ethan stared.
It showed his mother standing beside another woman.
A young Lily.
He looked at her.
“You knew my mother?”
Lily nodded.
“My mother worked for her.”
Ethan was stunned.
“She trusted my family.”
“Yes.”
“And she trusted you?”
“She trusted my mother.”
Lily explained that her mother had once helped Ethan's mother organize private records.
Before her death, Ethan's mother had given her a warning.
“If something happens to me, protect Ethan.”
Lily's voice trembled.
“My mother kept that promise.”
“And you continued it.”
Lily nodded.
Ethan looked at the photograph.
Suddenly, everything made sense.
Lily hadn't simply been kind.
She had been watching.
Protecting.
Waiting.
She had recognized signs of danger long before Ethan did.
Ethan reached across the table.
“Thank you.”
Lily smiled.
“You don't owe me anything.”
“I know.”
He paused.
“But I'm still going to say it.”
Lily's eyes softened.
May you like
“Then you're welcome.”
👉 Yet the photograph contained one final clue from Ethan's mother—and it pointed toward the truth behind her death.
