My Cute Neighbor Invited Me to Watch the Meteor Shower… Then Whispered, “Stay After Everyone Leaves.”
Chapter 7
They found Lily within three hours.
She was living in another state under a different name.
Emma cried when she saw her.
Lily didn’t recognize her immediately.
Then Emma showed her a childhood photograph.
Lily’s eyes filled with tears.
“You’re Emma.”
“Yes.”
“My sister.”
Emma hugged her.
For several minutes, neither spoke.
Noah stood nearby.
Lily looked at him.
“Who are you?”
Noah smiled.
“Someone trying to keep you safe.”
They moved Lily to a secure location.
She revealed that she had been told her family was dangerous.
She had spent years in foster care.
Then at eighteen, she was taken in by a private guardian.
The guardian was connected to Horizon.
“She said she was protecting me,” Lily explained.
Emma’s face hardened.
“Who?”
“Rachel Moore.”
Emma froze.
Rachel.
One of the people who had watched the meteor shower.
The woman had seemed harmless.
Friendly.
And she was part of the network.
They returned to Emma’s house.
The old photographs showed Rachel standing beside their parents.
Lily remembered her.
“She used to visit.”
Noah frowned.
“How long?”
“For years.”
Emma felt sick.
Rachel had been monitoring Lily.
Maybe everyone.
Then they discovered that the meteor shower gathering had been a trap.
Noah had invited Emma because Thomas’s instructions pointed there.
But Rachel had arranged for her to come.
The group of friends on the rooftop weren’t friends.
They were observers.
They had been watching Emma.
Noah had noticed first.
That’s why he whispered:
Stay after everyone leaves.
He wanted to warn her privately.
Emma looked at him.
“You knew.”
“I suspected.”
“You still invited me.”
“I needed to know if you were being watched.”
She stared.
“And if I was?”
“I wanted to protect you.”
Emma sighed.
“I’m beginning to hate that word.”
He smiled.
“Fair.”
They opened the final archive.
It revealed the true plan.
Horizon had been building a network of companies to control the upcoming transportation corridor.
But the Carter family owned the one property needed for the project.
Emma’s family land.
The land was worth billions.
The company couldn’t acquire it legally.
So they destroyed the family.
Framed her father.
Forced her mother into hiding.
Separated Lily.
Then watched Emma.
Emma stared.
“All of this was for land?”
Noah shook his head.
“Not just land.”
“What else?”
“Control.”
The corridor would determine where several new cities were built.
Whoever controlled it could influence billions in development.
Noah opened another file.
“The network has been planning this for twenty years.”
Emma felt angry.
“Then we stop them.”
Lily stepped closer.
“How?”
Emma looked at her.
“Together.”
Then a gunshot shattered the window.
Lily screamed.
Noah pushed them to the floor.
Another shot.
Then silence.
Noah looked outside.
A black SUV sped away.
Emma held Lily.
“Are you hurt?”
“No.”
Noah checked the room.
“They know where we are.”
Emma stared.
“How?”
Lily whispered:
“Rachel.”
They moved immediately.
Before leaving, Emma grabbed the archive.
One folder remained unopened.
It was labeled:
NOAH BENNETT.
She opened it.
Inside was a photograph of Noah as a child.
Standing beside Daniel Bennett.
And written beneath it:
PRIMARY ASSET.
Emma looked at Noah.
“What does that mean?”
Noah stared at the file.
He whispered:
“My father wasn’t just investigating Horizon.”
“What then?”
“He was working for them.”
