Chapter 10 - SERENA’S SON
Nicholas Montigue had officially been born to Serena’s older cousin in Switzerland.
At least, that was what the paperwork said.
Adrian knew otherwise.
He had been twenty-four when Raymond called him to Geneva.
A private clinic.
No public records.
No photographs.
No birth announcement.
Serena had delivered a boy after seven months of carefully hiding the pregnancy.
Raymond refused to allow the child to carry his name.
Adrian arranged new documents.
He hated himself for remembering how simple it had been.
One payment.
One doctor.
One clerk.
One child’s entire identity rewritten before he was ten days old.
“Why?”
Victor demanded inside the crypt.
“Why hide him if Raymond wanted an heir?”
“Because Salvatore was alive.”
Adrian replied.
“If Salvatore discovered Raymond had a son, he would have changed the trust.”
Victor’s face hardened.
“Our father knew Raymond was alive?”
“Yes.”
“Then why did he pretend otherwise?”
“Because family secrets were currency to him.”
Adrian said.
“He wanted Raymond invisible.”
“Raymond wanted the same thing until Salvatore died.”
Lily looked toward the cemetery entrance.
“Where is Nicholas now?”
Adrian shook his head.
“I lost track of him four years ago.”
“You helped hide a child and then lost him?”
Victor snapped.
“I walked away from Raymond.”
Adrian replied.
“That meant walking away from everything.”
Victor stared at him with disgust.
“You keep saying that like it deserves admiration.”
“It doesn’t.”
Adrian said quietly.
“It deserves consequences.”
Victor turned away.
Lily watched both men.
They were brothers.
But guilt had shaped them differently.
Victor turned guilt into control.
Adrian turned it into disappearance.
Neither had actually escaped it.
Back at the mansion, Serena waited in the east sitting room.
Victor entered with Lily.
Adrian remained outside.
Serena immediately looked at Lily’s necklace.
The key was gone.
Victor had placed it in a secure vault.
Serena noticed.
“You found it.”
Victor closed the door.
“Tell me about Nicholas.”
Serena’s face became blank.
Lily watched carefully.
“Who?”
Victor placed Dominic’s recorder on the table.
Serena stared at it.
“Eight years ago.”
Victor said.
“You gave birth to Raymond Hale’s son.”
Serena said nothing.
“His name is Nicholas.”
Still nothing.
“He delivered Ethan to Dominic’s house.”
That broke her.
Serena stood.
“What?”
Victor saw genuine surprise.
“Nicholas has Ethan?”
“Had.”
“Where is he now?”
“Safe.”
Serena closed her eyes.
Relief crossed her face.
Lily frowned.
“You care what happens to Ethan?”
Serena looked at her.
“I never wanted him dead.”
Lily stared in disbelief.
“You dragged him by the arm.”
“I lost my temper.”
“You drugged him.”
“No.”
Serena snapped.
Victor stepped between them.
“Who did?”
Serena looked away.
“Tell me.”
Victor ordered.
Serena’s shoulders dropped.
“Raymond.”
“How?”
“I don’t know.”
“You were living in my house.”
“Yes.”
“And my son was repeatedly sedated.”
“That wasn’t me.”
“Then who?”
Serena whispered.
“Dr. Halpern.”
Victor frowned.
“Ethan’s first pediatrician?”
Serena nodded.
“He worked for Raymond.”
Lily’s anger rose.
“You knew and said nothing?”
“I found out later.”
“When?”
“Three weeks ago.”
Lily stared.
“That’s when you started hurting Ethan.”
Serena’s jaw tightened.
“I was trying to make Victor cancel the wedding.”
Silence.
Victor looked at her.
“What?”
Serena laughed bitterly.
“You really think I wanted to marry you?”
Victor’s face became cold.
Serena continued.
“Raymond wanted me inside the Blackwood house.”
“He wanted access.”
“He wanted your trust.”
“He wanted Ethan.”
“So you accepted my proposal.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Serena’s eyes filled.
“Because he has Nicholas.”
Victor stared.
Lily’s anger faltered.
Serena sat slowly.
“Raymond raised my son like an investment.”
“He gave him schools.”
Money.”
Security.”
And taught him his mother abandoned him.”
Lily watched her.
“Did you?”
Serena’s lips trembled.
“I was twenty-four.”
“I thought Raymond loved me.”
“He told me hiding Nicholas would protect him.”
“Then he made sure I could never take him back.”
Victor looked at her.
“Why hurt Ethan?”
Serena wiped her eyes angrily.
“I told you.”
“I lost control.”
“That is not an answer.”
Serena stared at him.
“Because Ethan loved Lily.”
The room went silent.
Lily frowned.
“What?”
Serena’s voice cracked.
“He reached for her.”
“He cried when I held him.”
“He smiled when she walked in.”
“Every day I watched her be the mother to that boy that I was never allowed to be to my own son.”
Lily stared.
Serena looked at her with shame and hatred tangled together.
“I hated you for it.”
“That doesn’t excuse anything.”
Lily said.
“I know.”
For the first time, Serena did not defend herself.
Victor sat across from her.
“Did you kill Elena?”
Serena’s face changed.
“No.”
“Did you sabotage her car?”
“I helped.”
Victor’s eyes became deadly.
Lily’s stomach tightened.
Serena continued quickly.
“But it was not supposed to crash.”
“What did you do?”
“Raymond wanted Elena frightened.”
“She had discovered financial records.”
“He told me to swap her key fob with one connected to a vehicle tracker.”
Victor frowned.
“That doesn’t cause a crash.”
“No.”
Serena whispered.
“Dominic was supposed to follow her.”
Victor stared.
“And?”
“The steering system had been tampered with.”
“By whom?”
“I don’t know.”
Victor’s hand tightened.
“You expect me to believe that?”
“I expect you to believe I have spent eleven months wondering whether Raymond ordered it or whether someone else changed the plan.”
Lily remembered the recording.
Elena had said, I know what you changed.
Maybe Elena had discovered the key swap.
Not the sabotage itself.
Victor’s phone buzzed.
A message from Gabriel.
A MAN ASKING FOR LILY IS AT THE SOUTH GATE.
Victor looked at Lily.
“Who?”
She shook her head.
Gabriel sent a photograph.
A young man stood outside.
Maybe twenty-four.
Dark hair.
Gray eyes.
Expensive coat.
Serena saw the photograph over Victor’s shoulder.
All the color left her face.
“Nicholas.”
Victor looked at her.
Serena stood.
“That’s my son.”
Lily’s heart began racing.
“What does he want?”
Victor opened the attached message.
SEND LILY BENNETT OUT ALONE.
I KNOW WHERE DOMINIC IS.
Serena grabbed Victor’s arm.
“No.”
Victor looked down at her hand.
She released him.
“He works for Raymond.”
Serena whispered.
“He will kill her.”
Lily shook her head.
“If he wanted me dead, he wouldn’t come to the front gate.”
Serena laughed bitterly.
“You don’t know my son.”
Lily looked at her.
“Neither do you.”
The words hurt Serena.
Lily regretted them.
Not enough to take them back.
Victor walked to the window overlooking the south lawn.
Nicholas stood beyond the gates.
Alone.
Hands visible.
Victor made a decision.
“We bring him in.”
Serena shook her head violently.
“No.”
Victor looked at her.
“You wanted your son.”
“He is not the child I lost anymore.”
Victor’s expression tightened.
“Neither am I the brother Adrian lost.”
Serena stared at him.
Victor understood something then.
Children grew inside the stories adults built around them.
Nicholas had been raised by Raymond.
If Raymond had spent twenty-four years teaching the boy who his enemies were, then blood would mean little.
Nicholas was brought into the mansion.
He entered the library alone.
Serena waited behind a one-way observation panel.
Nicholas did not know she was there.
Victor sat at the table.
Lily sat beside him.
Nicholas looked at her first.
“You’re Thomas Bennett’s daughter.”
“Yes.”
“You look like him.”
“That’s what people keep telling me.”
Nicholas smiled faintly.
“He was kind to me.”
Lily froze.
“You knew my father?”
Nicholas nodded.
“I was eight when he died.”
Serena pressed both hands against the glass on the other side of the wall.
Victor noticed through the reflection.
Lily leaned forward.
“How?”
“My father took me to Chicago sometimes.”
“Raymond?”
Nicholas’s expression hardened.
“I don’t call him that.”
“What do you call him?”
“Sir.”
Victor studied him.
“Where is Dominic?”
Nicholas looked at Victor.
“Alive.”
“Where?”
“I’ll tell Lily.”
“Tell me.”
“No.”
Victor’s eyes hardened.
Nicholas remained calm.
Then he placed a small flash drive on the table.
“What is that?”
Lily asked.
“My insurance.”
Nicholas replied.
“Against what?”
“My father.”
He looked directly at Victor.
“Raymond is going to kill Serena tonight.”
Behind the glass, Serena stopped breathing.
Victor’s gaze sharpened.
“Why?”
“Because she failed.”
Nicholas looked toward the observation wall.
He could not see her.
Then he said something that made Serena cover her mouth to stop herself from crying.
“He told me my mother died when I was born.”
Lily looked toward the glass.
Nicholas continued.
“Three weeks ago, I learned she didn’t.”
Victor said nothing.
Nicholas’s jaw tightened.
“I learned she was living here.”
“Engaged to you.”
“So I started looking into everything Raymond told me.”
“And?”
Nicholas looked at Lily.
“Almost all of it was a lie.”
He pushed the flash drive closer.
“This contains the last conversation between Raymond Hale and Dominic Russo.”
Victor picked it up.
“When?”
“Two nights ago.”
Victor inserted it into a secure laptop.
Audio began.
Dominic’s voice.
“You promised the boy wouldn’t be hurt.”
Then Raymond.
Calm.
Cultured.
Recognizable from hundreds of television interviews.
“Promises are for people with equal leverage.”
Dominic replied.
“I covered Thomas.”
“I covered Adrian.”
“I covered Elena.”
Lily’s stomach tightened.
Raymond laughed.
“And now you will cover Ethan.”
Dominic’s voice turned hard.
“No.”
The recording ended.
Victor looked at Nicholas.
“What happened next?”
Nicholas swallowed.
“Dominic tried to leave.”
“My father took him.”
“Where?”
Nicholas leaned forward.
“The old Hale estate outside Lake Forest.”
Victor stood.
Nicholas raised a hand.
“You can’t go there yet.”
Victor’s eyes became lethal.
“Watch me.”
“My father expects you.”
Nicholas replied.
“He has Dominic wired into a dead-man system.”
Victor stopped.
“What does that mean?”
“If Raymond’s security goes down, Dominic dies.”
Silence.
Nicholas looked at Lily.
“There’s only one person Raymond agreed to meet without triggering it.”
Lily already knew the answer.
“Me.”
Nicholas nodded.
“Why?”
“Because he thinks you have Thomas’s hard drive.”
Lily’s throat tightened.
Nicholas looked toward the hidden glass.
Then spoke louder.
“And because he wants Serena to watch what happens to you.”
Serena closed her eyes.
Victor stood.
“No.”
Lily looked at him.
“No?”
“You’re not going.”
“My father’s evidence started this.”
“My son is the reason it continues.”
Victor replied.
Lily stood too.
“Then we both have something to lose.”
Nicholas watched them.
Victor looked at Lily for a long moment.
Then his phone vibrated.
A live video appeared.
Dominic sat tied to a chair.
His face was bruised.
A digital timer behind him counted down.
03:59:41.
03:59:40.
03:59:39.
Raymond Hale stepped into frame.
Perfect silver hair.
Perfect suit.
Perfect smile.
“Good evening, Victor.”
He said.
“Bring me Lily Bennett.”
Raymond’s smile widened.
“And this time, try not to arrive eleven minutes late.”
Victor froze.
That was exactly how late he had been the night Adrian’s warehouse exploded twelve years ago.
May you like
Raymond knew.
Because Raymond had been there.
