THE SEVEN BRANCHES
I couldn’t understand the photograph.
“Who is the girl?”
Thomas didn’t answer immediately.
“Claire discovered that the Seven Branches Society had been compromised.”
“By Warren?”
“Not alone.”
Thomas explained that charitable funds had been redirected through false scholarship recipients and private foundations.
Some of the children listed in the records didn’t exist.
Others had been assigned identities that weren’t theirs.
Claire had begun documenting everything.
“Why was Lily involved?”
“Your Lily wasn’t supposed to be involved.”
“Then why does her name appear?”
Thomas looked at me.
“Because someone reused an identity.”
Rachel stepped forward.
“What identity?”
Thomas pointed to the photograph.
“The little girl.”
I stared at her.
Claire was holding the child like a mother.
“Who is she?”
Thomas finally answered.
“Her name was Lily.”
My heart stopped.
“That’s impossible.”
“Not impossible.”
He opened another file.
Years earlier, a woman had escaped an abusive situation with her young daughter. Claire had helped them obtain temporary protection.
The girl was given the name Lily Carter in certain confidential records.
The arrangement was supposed to protect her.
But someone discovered the false identity.
And instead of destroying the records, they exploited them.
Scholarships.
Grant applications.
Medical assistance.
School funding.
Money moved through accounts connected to organizations that didn’t exist.
Claire discovered the pattern.
She tried to expose it.
Then she died.
I sat in silence.
“What does my daughter have to do with any of this?”
Thomas looked uncomfortable.
“When your daughter enrolled at Westbridge, someone recognized the name.”
“So they forged Claire’s signature?”
“Possibly.”
“Why?”
“To connect your daughter to an old record.”
I looked at the photograph again.
Claire’s expression wasn’t fearful.
It was determined.
She had known something was wrong.
She had been trying to protect someone.
Then Rachel remembered something.
“Claire told me to find a girl.”
“What girl?”
“The girl in the photograph.”
Thomas nodded.
“Her real identity may explain everything.”
“Where is she?”
“We don’t know.”
Then Lily spoke from behind me.
“I know where.”
We all turned.
She held the old library book.
“I found an address inside.”
A folded piece of paper was hidden between the pages.
Tomorrow.
9:00 a.m.
Bring Lily. She deserves her real name.
Rachel’s face went pale.
“That’s Claire’s handwriting.”
I looked at Thomas.
“Who wrote this?”
He didn’t answer.
Then he whispered:
“Someone who has been waiting for you to find her.”
