Chapter 1 - THE FOOTSTEPS BEHIND HER“ Take your hand off my son.”
Victor Blackwood spoke so quietly that the enormous marble foyer seemed to stop breathing.
Serena Montigue froze.
One hand was still twisted into the front of baby Ethan’s shirt.
Three feet away, Lily Hart lay on the cold marble floor, one arm wrapped around her ribs and the other stretched desperately toward the child she had spent the last year protecting.
Ethan was crying.
Not the ordinary cry of a tired baby.
It was the terrified, broken cry of a child who had learned that certain footsteps meant pain.
Victor stood at the far end of the foyer.
His black travel coat was still dusted with road salt from the drive back from New York. He had arrived two hours earlier than expected, without calling Serena, without warning the household staff, and without bringing his usual convoy of security vehicles.
He had wanted to surprise his fiancée.
Instead, he had walked into a nightmare.
Serena released Ethan.
“Victor…”
Her expression transformed instantly.
Tears filled her eyes.
“Thank God you're here. Lily attacked me. I was only trying to protect Ethan.”
Lily stared at her.
“That’s a lie.”
Victor didn't answer.
His eyes remained fixed on his son.
Ethan's tiny wrist was red.
One sock was missing.
His left arm hung at an unnatural angle.
When Victor slowly reached toward him, Ethan screamed harder.
Victor stopped.
That frightened him more than any gun ever had.
His own son was afraid of being touched.
Even by his father.
“Marco.”
Victor's head of security appeared instantly.
“Lock the gates. Call an ambulance. Call the police.”
Serena's face went pale.
“The police?”
Victor finally looked at her.
“A child has been injured.”
He stepped forward.
“Nobody leaves this house.”
Lily tried to stand, but pain forced her back against the marble column.
Victor noticed the bruising beneath her uniform.
“What happened to you?”
Serena answered immediately.
“She attacked me.”
Lily slowly opened her fist.
Inside was a tiny black button.
A miniature red light blinked once.
“I recorded everything,” she whispered.
Victor stared at the device.
Then at Serena.
For the first time that night, Serena's tears disappeared.
And Victor understood something.
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She wasn't afraid of the police.
She was afraid of what the recording might reveal.
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