Chapter 5
By midnight, Victor had disappeared.
At least, that was what the public believed.
His legal team announced that he had temporarily stepped away from Blackwood Holdings because of a family emergency.
No mention of Ethan.
No mention of Lily.
No mention of Serena.
Victor, Lily, Ethan, Rosa, and Detective Hayes traveled separately to a house seventy miles outside the city.
It belonged to Lily’s mother.
A modest two-story home surrounded by farmland.
No gates.
No marble.
No armed security standing at every door.
Victor hated how exposed it felt.
But Hayes argued that Serena would search places connected to Victor first.
Hotels.
Private estates.
Corporate properties.
Not the small farmhouse owned by a retired school secretary.
Lily’s mother, Margaret, opened the door at one in the morning.
She looked from Lily’s bruised face to Victor Blackwood standing behind her.
Then to Ethan asleep in his arms.
“Oh my God.”
Lily hugged her.
“I’ll explain.”
Margaret touched her daughter’s face.
“Who did this?”
“Mom…”
“Who?”
Victor answered.
“Someone connected to my former fiancée.”
Margaret looked at him sharply.
“Former?”
Victor’s jaw tightened.
“There will be no wedding.”
That was the easiest decision he had made all day.
They entered.
Margaret prepared the guest rooms without asking many questions.
Ethan woke once.
He started crying immediately.
Victor tried holding him.
Walking with him.
Singing badly.
Nothing worked.
Then Lily took Ethan.
Within minutes, he calmed.
Victor watched from the doorway.
It hurt in a way he hadn’t expected.
His son trusted Lily more than him.
And Victor knew exactly whose fault that was.
He had spent the last year buried in work.
Twelve-hour days.
International flights.
Meetings.
Acquisitions.
Anything that kept him from returning to the quiet rooms Claire had once filled.
Serena had entered that emptiness.
She had made his grief easier.
Or so he thought.
Now Victor understood something terrible.
While he escaped from his pain, other people had been carrying his son through theirs.
“You should sleep,” Lily said.
“I’m fine.”
“You haven’t slept.”
“Neither have you.”
Lily looked at Ethan.
“I’m used to it.”
Victor gave a humorless smile.
“That makes one of us.”
She studied him.
“You love him.”
Victor looked at her.
“Of course I love him.”
“I know.”
“Then why did you say it like that?”
“Because loving someone and being present are different.”
The words stung.
Lily immediately looked guilty.
“I’m sorry.”
“No.”
Victor sat on the edge of the bed.
“Don’t apologize.”
He rubbed his hands over his face.
“I was gone too much.”
Lily didn’t answer.
“I told myself I was building something for him.”
Victor looked around the simple room.
“All that money, all that security, and you kept him safer with a recorder under a table.”
Lily’s eyes softened.
“I bought it because I knew Serena was lying.”
“How long did you suspect her?”
“Almost from the beginning.”
“Why?”
Lily looked toward the window.
“She didn’t love Ethan.”
Victor felt something twist inside him.
“How could you tell?”
“Because people who love children don’t resent them for needing things.”
She looked at Ethan.
“When you held him, Serena watched you.”
Victor frowned.
“She wasn’t watching Ethan.”
Lily met his eyes.
“She was watching what he took away from her.”
Victor remembered countless moments.
Serena complaining when Victor canceled dinner because Ethan was sick.
Serena asking why Ethan needed to join them on vacation.
Serena suggesting boarding school before the child could even walk.
He had laughed.
He had thought she was joking.
“She wanted me without him,” Victor whispered.
“I think she wanted everything that came with you.”
Victor was quiet.
Lily continued.
“The house.”
“The company.”
“The name.”
“Yes.”
Victor looked at his sleeping son.
“And Claire?”
Lily swallowed.
“I think Claire was in the way.”
The room became silent.
A knock came.
Hayes entered.
“Sorry.”
Victor stood immediately.
“Did you find Serena?”
“No.”
“Then don’t be sorry. Find her.”
Hayes ignored the anger.
“We identified the man Lily described.”
He showed them a photograph.
Lily’s face changed.
“That’s him.”
Victor looked at the man.
Mid-forties.
Heavy build.
Scar along his chin.
“Name?”
“Caleb Rourke.”
“Criminal history?”
“Plenty.”
Hayes listed it.
Assault.
Extortion.
Burglary.
Two arrests for fraud.
Suspected involvement in several contract crimes that were never proven.
Victor looked at Lily.
“And Serena knew him?”
“Yes.”
Hayes continued.
“Rourke worked security for one of your subsidiaries eight years ago.”
Victor’s head snapped up.
“What?”
“He was fired.”
“Why?”
“Stealing.”
Victor stared at the photograph.
“Did Serena work there?”
“No.”
“Then how did they meet?”
“We’re looking.”
Victor started pacing.
“And Claire?”
“We checked old phone records.”
Hayes paused.
“Rourke was near your home the night Claire died.”
Victor stopped.
“How do you know?”
“Cell tower data.”
Victor’s face hardened.
“So Serena hired him.”
“Maybe.”
“Stop saying maybe.”
Hayes remained calm.
“Evidence matters, Victor.”
“My wife is dead.”
“I know.”
“My son was attacked.”
“I know.”
“And the woman responsible is running around free.”
Hayes stepped closer.
“And if we rush this, a defense attorney tears the case apart.”
Victor stared at him.
Hayes continued.
“I want Serena in prison just as much as you do. That means we build it correctly.”
Victor looked away.
“What else?”
“We recovered data from Serena’s second phone.”
“Messages?”
“Some.”
Hayes opened a file.
“There are payments.”
Victor looked at the numbers.
Large cash transfers.
Thousands at a time.
“To Rourke?”
“Through shell accounts.”
“When?”
“One payment two days before Claire died.”
Victor closed his eyes.
“Another payment today.”
Victor opened them.
“For the attack?”
“That’s what we suspect.”
Lily hugged Ethan closer.
Victor noticed.
“What about the pills?”
“Lab is processing them.”
“How long?”
“Soon.”
Hayes hesitated.
“There’s something else.”
Victor almost laughed bitterly.
“There’s always something else.”
“We searched Serena’s financial records.”
“And?”
“She was deeply in debt before she met you.”
Victor frowned.
“That doesn’t make sense.”
Serena came from a wealthy family.
At least, she claimed she did.
“She had designer clothes, properties…”
“Mostly financed.”
Hayes slid a report across the table.
“Her family fortune disappeared years ago.”
Victor scanned it.
Millions owed.
Lawsuits.
Unpaid loans.
Gambling losses connected to Serena’s father.
“How much?”
“At one point, nearly nine million dollars.”
Victor looked up.
“Then she started seeing you.”
Hayes nodded.
“And her debts began disappearing.”
Victor’s stomach turned.
“She used my money.”
“Some of it.”
Victor thought about gifts.
Joint cards.
Accounts he barely monitored.
“Where did the rest come from?”
“That’s interesting.”
Hayes opened another document.
“Claire had a life insurance policy.”
Victor frowned.
“I know.”
“Ten million dollars.”
Victor nodded.
“The beneficiary was Ethan.”
“Originally.”
Victor slowly looked up.
Hayes continued.
“Six weeks before Claire died, someone attempted to change the beneficiary.”
Victor’s blood ran cold.
“To who?”
Hayes turned the page.
“Victor Blackwood.”
Victor stared at him.
“That doesn’t make sense.”
“No.”
“I never requested that.”
“We know.”
Lily spoke softly.
“Why would Serena want the money to go to Victor?”
Victor realized it first.
“Because Ethan’s trust was protected.”
Hayes nodded.
“If the money went directly to Ethan, Serena couldn’t easily access it.”
Victor continued.
“But if it went to me…”
“And Serena married you…”
“She’d have access.”
Hayes nodded again.
Victor sat down.
This wasn’t jealousy.
It wasn’t obsession.
It was planning.
Patient, deliberate planning.
Then Margaret appeared in the doorway.
She looked frightened.
“Lily?”
Everyone turned.
“There’s a car outside.”
Victor stood.
Hayes reached for his weapon.
“What car?”
“Black sedan.”
“Did you see who’s inside?”
Margaret shook her head.
“It’s been sitting down the road for ten minutes.”
Hayes turned off the room light.
Everyone froze.
Victor moved toward Ethan.
Then the front doorbell rang.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
Hayes signaled for everyone to stay back.
He approached the door.
“Who is it?”
A man’s voice answered.
“Delivery.”
Nobody had ordered anything.
Hayes drew his gun.
Victor took Ethan from Lily.
The doorbell rang again.
May you like
Then the stranger outside said something that made Victor’s entire body go cold.
“Mr. Blackwood, Serena says hello.”
