Chapter 2: Someone Was Sending Her Updates
Detective Cole pulled me into the hallway.
"We ran Meredith's name," she said quietly.
"It came back clean.
Too clean."
"What does that mean?"
"It means the name she gave you may not be her real one."
My legs went weak.
I thought about our wedding.
The license.
Every document she had ever handed me.
Back inside, one of the officers was going through Meredith's bag.
He stopped.
Pulled out a small envelope.
Inside were photographs.
Not of our house.
Of Lily.
Taken outside her preschool.
Dated eight months before I ever met Meredith.
"She was watching her," I said.
"Before we even spoke."
Detective Cole nodded slowly.
"We also found a phone.
Prepaid.
There are messages on it — but they're not addressed to you."
"Then who?"
She hesitated.
"Someone was sending her updates.
Checking in.
Asking if she was close yet."
My throat closed.
Meredith hadn't been working alone.
Someone else had been directing her.
Someone who knew about Lily.
Someone who had been waiting even longer than she had.
I looked toward the living room where Lily sat wrapped in a blanket, still holding Bunny.
She looked up at me.
"Daddy…
is the lady coming back?"
I couldn't answer her.
Because I didn't know who else was still out there.
---
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The full truth about Meredith — and who was really behind this — is darker than anything in Part 1.
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