THE MASSAGE
1814 Words
CHAPTER 3
The drive to the Carter estate was silent.
Ethan sat beside Lily in the back seat, his attention fixed on his phone. He had made three calls since leaving the office, and none of them had lasted more than a minute. Whatever had happened at the storage facility, it had unsettled him more than he wanted her to see.
Lily watched him from the corner of her eye.
She had known Ethan for exactly one month, yet somehow she had already learned that his silence meant more than most people's words.
“Are you going to tell me what happened?” she finally asked.
Ethan didn't look up.
“Someone entered the storage room last night.”
“You said that.”
“They didn't steal anything.”
“Then what did they leave?”
His thumb stopped moving across the screen.
“A photograph.”
Lily's stomach tightened.
“Of Emma?”
“No.”
Ethan finally looked at her.
“Of you.”
For a moment, Lily couldn't breathe.
The car continued through the gates of the Carter estate while her mind struggled to process his words.
“That's impossible.” Lily said .
“I thought so too.”
“Who took it?”
“We don't know.”
“What photograph?”
Ethan slipped his phone into his pocket.
“You'll see.”
The estate appeared through the trees, its dark windows reflecting the grey afternoon sky. Lily had been there only once before, but today the house felt completely different. Last time, she had entered as an employee hired to clean out a dead woman's life.
Now she was entering as someone who had become part of whatever secret Emma had left behind.
The moment they stepped inside, Ethan's security chief approached them.
“Mr. Carter.”
Ethan's expression hardened.
“Show us.”
The man nodded and led them toward the west wing.
Lily followed Ethan closely.
The storage room was at the end of a long corridor. Two security guards stood outside the door.
Ethan stopped.
“Who has been inside?”
“No one except me and Daniel.”
“Good.”
He opened the door.
The room was almost exactly as Lily remembered it. Boxes covered the shelves, old photographs were stacked in wooden cases, and Emma's personal belongings had been sealed away after her death.
But one thing was different.
A large photograph had been placed in the center of the floor.
Lily stepped closer.
Her heart stopped.
It was a photograph of her.
Not a recent one.
She was thirteen years old, standing outside a school building with a backpack over one shoulder.
Someone had taken it from across the street.
Lily stared at it in disbelief.
“I've never seen this before.” her hands were shaking.
Ethan moved beside her.
“When was this taken?”
“I was thirteen.”
“You're sure?”
“Yes.”
Her voice shook.
“How could Emma have this?”
Ethan didn't answer.
Lily crouched down and picked up the photograph.
Something was written on the back.
She turned it over.
Three words.
She remembers nothing.
Lily's fingers tightened around the paper.
“What does that mean?”
Ethan took the photograph from her.
“I don't know.”
“You're lying.”
His eyes met hers.
“I wish I were.”
Before Lily could respond, Ethan's security chief spoke.
“There's something else.”
He pointed toward a wooden cabinet.
“The lock wasn't forced.”
Ethan walked toward it.
The cabinet was open. Inside were dozens of files.
Lily recognized Emma's handwriting on the labels.
Ethan began searching through them.
Then he stopped.
One file was missing.
“What was here?” he asked.
Daniel looked at the empty space.
“I'm not sure.”
Ethan's jaw tightened.
“Find out.”
Daniel left immediately.
Lily looked at Ethan.
“You know what was in that file.”
“I have an idea.”
“Tell me.”
“No.”
Her frustration finally broke.
“You brought me here. Someone has been following me. They have photographs of me from when I was a child, and you're still telling me nothing.”
Ethan turned toward her.
“You want the truth?”
“Yes.”
“Then understand that once I tell you, you don't get to walk away.”
Lily held his gaze.
“I stopped being able to walk away the moment someone started threatening me.”
Something softened in Ethan's eyes.
“You should hate me.”
“I'm getting there.”
A faint smile touched his mouth.
It disappeared almost immediately.
“Emma was investigating someone inside Carter Holdings before she died.”
“Who?”
“We never found out.”
“You never found out?”
“No.”
“Then why did she choose me?”
Ethan looked at the photograph in his hand.
“That is the question I've been trying to answer for three years.”
Lily froze.
“Three years?”
“Emma started investigating six months before her death.”
“And you knew?”
“I knew she was frightened. I didn't know why.”
“Did she ever tell you anything?”
Ethan hesitated.
“Once.”
“What?”
“She told me that if anything happened to her, I should find a woman named Lily Morgan.”
The room seemed to lose all its air.
Lily stared at him.
“You knew my name before you hired me.”
“Yes.”
“Then why did you pretend you didn't?”
“Because I needed to know whether Emma had been right about you.”
Lily took a step back.
“So the job wasn't really about cleaning out Emma's things.”
“No.”
“What was it about?”
Ethan's voice dropped.
“You.”
Silence.
Lily felt betrayed in a way she hadn't expected.
“You used me.”
“I protected you.”
“You lied to me.”
“I did.”
“At least you're honest about that.”
Ethan looked at her for a long moment.
“I didn't know who I could trust.”
“And you decided I was safe?”
“No.”
His answer surprised her.
“I decided you were the only person Emma trusted.”
Before Lily could respond, Ethan's phone rang.
He answered.
“Speak.”
A pause. His expression changed.
“Send me the footage.”
The call ended.
“What happened?”
“Security cameras caught someone entering the storage room.”
“Did you see their face?”
“No.”
Ethan turned his phone toward her.
The video showed the corridor outside the storage room.
A figure in dark clothing appeared on screen.
They entered the room.
Five minutes later, they walked out.
Lily leaned closer.
“Stop.”
Ethan paused the video.
“What?”
“Go back.”
He did.
The figure passed the camera again.
Lily stared at the screen.
There was something familiar about the way the person moved.
Not the clothes.
The posture.
The slight tilt of the head.
“I've seen that person.”
Ethan looked at her.
“Where?”
“I don't know.”
She watched the footage again.
Then she noticed something.
The person was wearing a silver ring.
A small black stone sat in the center.
Lily's face changed.
“That's the same ring.”
“What ring?”
“The one Emma was wearing in the photograph.”
Ethan went completely still.
Lily pointed at the screen.
“Look.”
The ring was visible for only two seconds before the figure disappeared around the corner.
Ethan immediately called Daniel.
“Pull every photograph of Emma from the last year. I want close-ups of her hands. Every event. Every security image.”
He ended the call.
Lily looked at him.
“You've seen that ring before.”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
Ethan didn't answer.
“Ethan.”
His eyes lowered.
“On my father's desk.”
Lily's heart sank.
“Your father?”
“He died eight months ago.”
“Then what does that mean?”
“I don't know.”
For the first time, Ethan looked genuinely lost.
Lily stepped closer.
“Maybe someone in your family knows what happened.”
“That's what I'm afraid of.”
The words had barely left his mouth when the lights went out.
The room plunged into darkness.
Lily instinctively reached for Ethan.
His hand found hers before she could pull away.
“Stay close.”
Something moved outside the door.
A soft sound.
Then footsteps.
Ethan released her hand and reached for his phone.
“Daniel?”
No answer.
The footsteps stopped.
Lily's heart pounded.
“Ethan…”
“I know.”
The door handle moved.
Once.
Twice.
Then stopped.
Ethan positioned himself between Lily and the door.
A second later, something slid underneath it.
A small envelope.
The footsteps disappeared.
Ethan waited.
Then he opened the door.
The corridor was empty.
He returned to the room and picked up the envelope.
There was no name on it.
Inside was a single sheet of paper.
Lily read it over his shoulder.
You were warned.
Beneath the words was another sentence.
Ask Ethan why Emma was afraid of him.
Lily slowly turned toward him.
Ethan's expression had gone cold.
“Is it true?”
He didn't answer.
“Was Emma afraid of you?”
“No.”
The answer came quietly.
“Then why would someone say she was?”
“I don't know.”
Lily looked at the paper again.
There was something else written at the bottom.
A date.
The date of Emma's death.
And beneath it, four words.
She never reached the hospital.
Lily's blood ran cold.
“Ethan…”
He stared at the message.
For three years, everyone had believed Emma Carter died on the way to the hospital after her accident.
But if this message was true, Emma had never made it there.
Someone had lied about what happened that night.
And someone had gone to great lengths to make sure the truth stayed buried.
Ethan looked at her.
“I think Emma was alive after the crash.”
Lily's breath caught. She felt the floor disappear beneath her feet.
“Then where did she go?”
Neither of them had an answer.
But somewhere inside the Carter estate, a phone began to ring.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
Ethan looked toward the sound.
The ringtone was coming from Emma's locked bedroom.
A room that had been untouched since the night she died.
And when Ethan opened the door, Lily saw a phone lying on the bed.
The screen was glowing.
INCOMING CALL — EMMA CARTER.
To be continued...
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