Chapter 3 - The Papers That Survived the FirePolice recovered thirty-seven partially burned pages.
Most looked meaningless.
Medical schedules.
Foundation invoices.
Household payments.
Then Lily recognized Ethan’s name.
Medication schedule.
Dosage increases.
Behavioral observations.
And initials beside every entry.
S.M.
Serena Montrose.
One instruction appeared repeatedly:
INCREASE BEFORE FATHER RETURNS.
Victor read it twice.
“Why would she sedate him before I came home?”
Lily knew.
“Because Ethan cried whenever Serena held him.”
The room became silent.
“If he was sedated,” Lily continued, “you saw a peaceful baby.”
Victor slowly sat down.
The perfect family photographs.
The quiet dinners.
Ethan sleeping peacefully against Serena's chest.
All of it suddenly looked different.
Then Marco found Lily's file.
Her home address.
Bank records.
Her mother's medical information.
Her debts.
And a handwritten psychological assessment.
CAREGIVER FORMS STRONG ATTACHMENT TO CHILD.
LIKELY TO INTERFERE.
FINANCIAL PRESSURE RECOMMENDED.
Lily felt physically sick.
“They studied me.”
Victor looked at her.
“No.”
His voice was quieter now.
“They hunted you.”
Then Marco turned another page.
PHASE TWO — AFTER WEDDING.
Remove nanny.
Transfer Ethan.
Establish Serena as guardian.
Modify Blackwood trust authority.
Victor's eyes stopped on the final line.
CONTINGENCY: VICTOR BLACKWOOD INCAPACITATION.
He looked up.
“She wasn't trying to marry into my family.”
Lily understood before he finished.
“She was trying to inherit it.”
Then Marco found a photograph among the burned papers.
A frightened woman tied to a chair.
Victor recognized her immediately.
“Maya Torres.”
Ethan's former pediatric nurse.
Missing for six months.
But there was something behind Maya in the photograph.
Another woman.
Thin.
Barefoot.
Watching the camera.
Victor stared at her.
His hands began to shake.
Lily had never seen Victor Blackwood afraid.
“Who is she?”
Victor whispered the answer.
“My wife.”
Lily frowned.
Victor's wife had died three years earlier.
May you like
Victor stared at the photograph.
“Isabella.”
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