Chương 4 - The Letter Rachel DelayedRachel had arranged for the envelope to be delivered only if she could not cancel it herself.
Inside was a handwritten letter.
Ethan,
If you’re reading this, I ran out of time.
His vision blurred.
He forced himself to continue.
I need you to understand that I am not afraid of dying. I am afraid of what happens in this house after I’m gone.
Ethan sat down.
Lily climbed beside him.
Rachel wrote that Diane had been “helping” more often while Rachel underwent treatment.
At first, Rachel was grateful.
Then Lily changed.
Food disappeared.
Small marks appeared on her wrist from being grabbed.
Lily stopped asking Diane for anything.
Rachel confronted Diane.
Diane called her paranoid.
Ethan remembered that fight.
Diane had phoned him crying.
Rachel is sick, Ethan. She thinks everyone is against her.
He had believed his sister.
The letter continued.
I started documenting things because I could feel you looking at me like I was scared of shadows. I don’t blame you for being exhausted. But exhaustion can become blindness.
Ethan covered his face.
Then he reached the line that changed everything.
Diane is not only controlling Lily. She has been accessing the family trust.
Rachel had discovered unauthorized transfers from Lily’s education trust.
Small at first.
Then larger.
She believed Diane had used old family credentials Ethan had given her years earlier for emergency bookkeeping.
Rachel confronted the bank.
A fraud review began.
Then Rachel became too ill to follow it.
At the bottom:
The blue file contains copies. If it disappears, check my cloud archive under Lily’s birthday, not mine.
Ethan grabbed his laptop.
The archive existed.
Password prompt.
Lily whispered, “Mommy said my birthday is also a promise.”
Ethan typed:
0417LILY.
Wrong.
Then Lily said, “No. The day I came home.”
Ethan froze.
Rachel had always celebrated two dates.
Lily’s birthday.
And the day she came home from the NICU.
He typed 0423.
The archive opened.
Folders filled the screen.
BANK.
CAMERAS.
DIANE.
LILY.
And one marked:
IF ETHAN DOESN’T BELIEVE ME.
Ethan clicked it.
A video began.
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Rachel appeared on screen, pale from treatment.
Behind her, someone was pounding on the locked office door.
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