She says if I tell you about the juice, you’ll believe her videos, and think I’m making things up.”
Later, Marcus would realize that this was among the most disturbing details of all.
Sarah had prepared Lily in advance to expect that her own father would not believe her.
She had told the child that if she spoke about the juice, the recordings would be used against her.
It was the strategy of someone who had considered the possibility of discovery and built protection against it.
Then Lily added something Marcus had not expected at all.
“She talks to Julian, too.”
The name meant nothing to him.
“Who’s Julian?”
“A man who comes over sometimes,” Lily whispered, “when you’re away.
They talk about Mommy’s beach house.”
For a second, Marcus stopped breathing.
With that sentence, the shape of the situation changed.
This was no longer simply a cruel stepmother mistreating a child she resented.
A man Marcus had never heard of was coming into his home while he was traveling, and he and Sarah were talking about Hannah’s beach house.
And the beach house was not a minor asset.
It was the center of everything.
Chapter 6 — The Beach House
The estate was on Martha’s Vineyard.
It had belonged to Hannah’s grandmother, and after a complicated family trust arrangement, it was connected to a holding company whose majority shares belonged outright to Lily.
Marcus was responsible for managing those assets carefully until his daughter reached legal age.
The oceanfront property was worth more than six million dollars.
“What do they say about the house, Lily?” Marcus asked, keeping his voice as light as he could.
“Julian said they were missing two good videos,” Lily whispered.
“Good?”
“Good for them,” Lily said, frowning as she worked through the distinction in the painful logic of a six-year-old.
“Bad for me.”
And Marcus felt the pieces begin falling into place.
The drops that made Lily behave differently.
The recordings of that behavior.
The stepmother telling her she might someday have to live somewhere else.
The unknown man discussing a six-million-dollar house owned by his daughter.
And now the missing videos—good for Sarah and Julian, bad for Lily.
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