Chapter 2: The Name Nobody Said
Lily fell asleep in the car seat before we reached the apartment.
I carried her inside, laid her down, and sat on the edge of the bed watching her breathe.
The mark on her cheek had faded to a pale pink.
Dr.
Howard said it would be gone in a few days.
I knew it would never be gone from the file.
My phone had been vibrating since the elevator closed.
Fourteen messages from Jason.
Three from Brooke.
One from a number I didn't recognize.
I opened the unknown one first.
*Emily.
This is Aunt Carol.
I was watching the livestream.
I have something you need to see.
Please call me tonight.*
I stared at the screen.
Carol Bennett.
Jason's father's sister.
The one Diane had stopped inviting to family events four years ago.
The one nobody talked about.
I called her back.
She answered on the first ring.
"I filmed everything," she said.
"Not just tonight.
I've been filming for two years."
My hand tightened around the phone.
"Why?" I asked.
There was a long pause.
"Because what they did to you," she said quietly, "they did to someone else first."
The room went very still.
"Who?" I asked.
She said a name I had never heard before.
And everything I thought I understood about the Bennett family shifted under my feet.
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What Carol revealed next — and who that name belonged to — changed the entire case.
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What Emily found out will leave you speechless.
