Chapter 4 - The Locked GardenThat evening, Marcus found Lily standing outside the mansion's old garden.
The garden had been locked for years.
Nobody was allowed inside.
Not even staff.
Lily was pressing her face against the iron bars.
“What are you doing?”
She turned.
“Looking.”
“At what?”
She pointed.
“Mr. Bun's house.”
Marcus frowned.
There was no house.
Only an abandoned greenhouse beneath climbing ivy.
“Who's Mr. Bun's house?”
She shrugged.
“Mommy said Daddy used to have a garden.”
Marcus froze.
“Your father?”
Lily nodded.
“He planted flowers.”
“What was his name?”
She didn't answer.
Instead, she reached through the bars.
Her fingers touched something beneath the leaves.
A small brass key.
Marcus stared.
“Where did you find that?”
“Here.”
He unlocked the garden.
The greenhouse door opened with a long metallic groan.
Inside, dust covered everything.
Old gardening tools.
Broken pots.
A wooden bench.
And photographs.
Marcus picked one up.
His face changed.
The photograph showed his mother.
Standing beside another woman.
And between them was a young man.
Marcus recognized him immediately.
His father.
But there was another person in the photograph.
A woman.
The same woman whose name had appeared on an old legal document in his mother's estate.
Evelyn Bennett.
My mother.
I stared at the photograph.
I couldn't breathe.
Marcus looked at me.
“You knew?”
I shook my head.
“No.”
He turned the photograph over.
There was handwriting on the back.
Some families inherit money. Others inherit the truth.
Below it was a date.
Sixteen years earlier.
Marcus looked toward Lily.
Then at me.
“What did your mother never tell you?”
Before I could answer, the greenhouse lights suddenly switched on.
Neither of us had touched them.
Someone was inside.
A shadow moved behind the shelves.
Marcus grabbed my arm.
“Stay behind me.”
Then a man stepped into view.
Gray jacket.
Black cap.
May you like
The same man from the security footage.
And he was holding a photograph of Lily.
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