Chapter 12 - THE OTHER BABY
For six minutes, no one understood where the second child had come from.
Then Lily did.
“Serena’s son.”
Victor looked at her.
“What?”
“Not Nicholas.”
She shook her head.
“No.”
“Another child.”
Adrian frowned.
“Serena only had Nicholas.”
“Then whose baby is at the clinic?”
Lily replied.
Victor called Dr. Mercer.
“Run DNA.”
“Immediately.”
The doctor hesitated.
“Victor, that takes time.”
“Use the rapid lab.”
“Compare him to me.”
“And Serena.”
Everyone looked at Victor.
Serena’s DNA remained in hospital records from routine testing.
Results came ninety minutes later.
The baby was not Victor’s child.
He was not Serena’s child.
He was unrelated to either family.
Lily stared at the report.
“So Raymond kidnapped another baby?”
Victor’s face turned dark.
Gabriel already had people checking missing-child reports.
Within an hour, they found one.
A fourteen-month-old boy named Caleb Rhodes had disappeared from a private daycare two days earlier.
His hair color matched Ethan’s.
His size was similar.
Raymond had planned the substitution in advance.
Victor felt physically ill.
Another family had been living the nightmare he now understood.
“Contact the parents.”
He told Gabriel.
“No press.”
“No Blackwood name.”
“Just get their son back to them.”
Lily watched him.
Victor noticed.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
“That wasn’t nothing.”
She looked away.
“You’re thinking I’m surprised you care.”
“Aren’t you?”
Lily hesitated.
“Yes.”
Victor accepted it.
“I deserve that.”
The admission stayed with her.
By dawn, they had three crises.
Ethan remained missing.
Serena had been taken.
Raymond had escaped.
Dominic was injured but alive.
And Nicholas had disappeared during the confusion.
Victor assumed the worst.
Lily did not.
“He wouldn’t help us disable Dominic’s device just to run back to Raymond.”
“You don’t know him.”
“Neither do you.”
Victor looked at her.
She realized she had used the same words against Serena hours earlier.
Maybe none of them knew Nicholas.
Maybe Nicholas did not know himself.
At 7:40 a.m., Lily received a message.
Unknown number.
THE GREENHOUSE.
She showed Victor.
They found Nicholas inside Elena’s old greenhouse at the far edge of the Blackwood property.
He was bleeding from a cut along his forehead.
Victor’s guards surrounded him.
Nicholas raised his hands.
“I’m not here to fight.”
Victor stepped forward.
“Where is Ethan?”
“I don’t know.”
Victor grabbed him.
“Wrong answer.”
Nicholas did not resist.
“I know where Serena is.”
Victor released him.
Lily stepped closer.
“Where?”
“Raymond’s yacht.”
“Lake Michigan?”
Nicholas nodded.
“He moved her after taking Ethan.”
Victor’s eyes hardened.
“So Ethan is there.”
“No.”
“How do you know?”
“Because Raymond separates leverage.”
Nicholas wiped blood from his forehead.
“He never keeps two important hostages in one place.”
Adrian arrived.
He looked at Nicholas.
“He taught you well.”
Nicholas glared.
“He taught me to survive him.”
Adrian nodded.
“That too.”
Victor crossed his arms.
“Why come back here?”
Nicholas looked at Lily.
“Because Thomas left something for me too.”
Lily froze.
“My father?”
Nicholas nodded.
“When I was eight.”
He reached inside his coat.
Victor’s men tensed.
Nicholas removed a small brass token.
A chess knight was engraved on one side.
Lily recognized it.
Her father had owned a chess set with identical pieces.
“He gave you that?”
“Yes.”
“He told me if I ever learned Raymond had lied to me, I should take it to his daughter.”
Lily stared.
“What does it do?”
“I was hoping you knew.”
She turned it over.
Numbers were scratched along the edge.
3-1-20-8-5-18-9-14-5.
Victor frowned.
“A code?”
Lily whispered the numbers as letters.
C A T H E R I N E.
“Catherine.”
Adrian’s face changed.
“No.”
Victor looked at him.
“Who is Catherine?”
Adrian stared at the token.
“Catherine Moretti.”
“Elena’s grandmother.”
Victor frowned.
“She died before Elena was born.”
Adrian nodded.
“She owned a house in Wisconsin.”
“Lake Geneva.”
Lily’s heart accelerated.
Thomas had said the second copy was hidden where no Blackwood would willingly look.
Dominic’s note had pointed to Elena’s name.
Maybe the hard drive from the crypt was not the final copy.
Maybe it was a map.
They opened the files from the second hard drive.
Most were financial evidence.
But one encrypted folder was labeled CATHERINE.
The password was nine characters.
Lily entered the letters from the token.
It opened.
Inside were photographs of an old lake house.
Property deeds.
A map.
And a video recorded by Elena.
Victor froze.
His wife appeared on screen.
She was pregnant.
Maybe seven months.
She sat inside the lake house.
“If Victor is watching this, then I ran out of time.”
Victor’s breathing stopped.
Lily looked away briefly.
Elena continued.
“Thomas Bennett came to me because he believed our families were being manipulated by the same person.”
“Raymond Hale.”
“He told me something Victor will not want to believe.”
Victor sat.
“He told me Victor may not be Salvatore’s biological son.”
“But Thomas was wrong about one thing.”
Victor looked up.
Elena’s eyes filled on the screen.
“I already knew.”
Silence.
Victor whispered.
“What?”
Elena continued.
“I discovered it before our wedding.”
“I married him anyway.”
Victor closed his eyes.
Lily felt her throat tighten.
“He is Victor Blackwood because he chose every day what kind of man that name would mean.”
“Blood does not decide that.”
Victor’s face cracked.
Elena smiled sadly.
“But Raymond believes blood is everything.”
“That is why he will come for our son.”
She placed a hand over her pregnant belly.
“So I created insurance.”
Adrian leaned closer.
“What insurance?”
Elena continued.
“If Ethan is ever taken, there is one person Raymond cannot afford to kill.”
Victor frowned.
Elena said the name.
“Nicholas Montigue.”
Nicholas stared at the screen.
“My God.”
Elena continued.
“Thomas believed Nicholas is not Raymond’s son.”
Everyone froze.
Serena’s story.
Raymond’s heir.
The hidden child.
Elena shook her head.
“Raymond believes Nicholas is his.”
“Serena believes Nicholas is his.”
“But Thomas found blood records suggesting otherwise.”
Nicholas turned pale.
Victor stared.
“If Nicholas is not Raymond’s son, whose is he?”
Elena looked directly into the camera as if she knew they would ask.
Then she answered.
“Adrian Blackwood.”
Silence exploded through the room.
Nicholas turned toward Adrian.
Adrian looked as if he had been shot.
“No.”
Victor stared at his brother.
Adrian stepped backward.
“No.”
Nicholas’s voice barely worked.
“You knew my mother?”
Adrian looked at him.
“I knew Serena.”
“When?”
“Before the warehouse.”
Nicholas understood.
“You slept with her.”
Adrian closed his eyes.
“Yes.”
Nicholas laughed once.
It sounded broken.
Victor looked at Elena’s video.
She continued.
“Serena may not know.”
“Adrian may not know.”
“But Raymond can never learn unless necessary.”
“Because if Nicholas is Adrian’s biological son, he is a direct Blackwood heir.”
Lily felt cold.
“And if Ethan dies?”
Nicholas whispered.
Victor understood.
The Heritage Trust would not automatically pass to Raymond.
It could pass to Nicholas.
Raymond had spent twenty-four years raising the very man who could legally defeat him.
Elena continued.
“This is why Nicholas is insurance.”
“If Raymond discovers the truth, he will kill him.”
The video ended.
Nobody spoke.
Nicholas stared at Adrian.
Adrian looked unable to breathe.
Then Victor’s phone rang.
Serena.
He answered instantly.
Her voice was weak.
“Victor.”
“Where are you?”
“I don’t know.”
“Are you hurt?”
A shaky breath.
“Yes.”
“Is Ethan with you?”
“No.”
Victor closed his eyes.
“Serena, listen to me.”
“Where did Raymond take him?”
“I heard something.”
“What?”
“A train.”
Everyone froze.
Serena continued.
“Not a normal train.”
“A horn.”
“Freight cars.”
Nicholas looked at Adrian.
Adrian understood.
“The rail yard.”
Victor nodded.
Chicago had dozens.
Serena whispered.
“There was another sound.”
“What?”
“Church bells.”
Lily looked at the map.
Rail yard.
Church bells.
Nicholas suddenly pointed.
“St. Gabriel freight terminal.”
“There’s a church two blocks away.”
Victor was already moving.
Then Serena cried out.
A man’s voice came through the phone.
Raymond.
“You’re getting closer.”
Victor stopped.
Raymond laughed.
“But you still don’t understand the game.”
A baby cried in the background.
Ethan.
Victor’s face changed.
Raymond continued.
“Come to the rail yard.”
“Bring Adrian.”
Nicholas looked at his father.
Raymond added one final instruction.
“And bring Nicholas too.”
The line went dead.
Adrian stared at Victor.
Nicholas stared at Adrian.
Lily realized what Raymond had just learned.
The secret Elena died protecting.
Someone had told him.
May you like
Raymond now knew Nicholas might be Adrian Blackwood’s son.
And suddenly Ethan was no longer the only heir whose life was in danger.
