Chapter 2 - THE FIRST LIE
Victor stared at the blue envelope for so long that Gabriel finally spoke.
“Boss?”
Victor did not answer.
Gabriel bent to pick it up.
“Don’t.”
Gabriel stopped.
Victor pulled a handkerchief from his pocket and lifted the envelope by one corner.
Lily watched from the hospital bed.
Her stomach felt cold.
“That’s the same kind.”
She whispered.
Victor looked back at her.
“You’re certain?”
“Yes.”
“The envelope you left in my office looked exactly like this?”
“Yes.”
Victor turned it over.
The flap had been opened.
Whatever Lily had originally placed inside was gone.
A different sheet of paper had been inserted.
Victor unfolded it.
Three sentences were printed in block letters.
THE NANNY IS NOT WHO YOU THINK SHE IS.
THE WOMAN YOU LOVE IS NOT WHO YOU THINK SHE IS.
ASK WHO BENEFITS WHEN THE BLACKWOOD BOY DIES.
Gabriel swore under his breath.
Victor’s eyes lifted.
“Lock this floor.”
Gabriel nodded.
“And find whoever walked past this room in the last ten minutes.”
“I’ll pull security.”
Victor’s expression turned cold.
“Do that.”
Gabriel left.
Lily watched Victor read the note again.
“Do you believe me now?”
Victor folded the paper.
“I believe my son was hurt.”
“That wasn’t what I asked.”
Victor looked at her.
“No.”
The answer stung.
Lily had expected it.
She still hated hearing it.
“You don’t believe me.”
“I believe someone in my house is lying.”
Victor placed the envelope inside a plastic evidence sleeve a nurse had brought.
“I believe someone intercepted a note you intended for me.”
“I believe someone knew exactly where to leave that envelope tonight.”
“And I believe Serena lied about her phone.”
He paused.
“But belief is not proof.”
Lily looked toward the rain running down the hospital window.
“That’s why I recorded her.”
Victor’s expression hardened.
“You recorded people in my home without permission.”
“She was hurting your child.”
“And you stayed.”
Lily turned back sharply.
“I stayed because Ethan needed someone.”
Victor said nothing.
Lily’s voice broke.
“You weren’t there.”
The words landed harder than she expected.
Victor’s face changed.
Lily immediately regretted them.
But she did not take them back.
“You were in New York.”
“Miami.”
“Montreal.”
“You were gone four days one week and five days the next.”
“You trusted people.”
“I understand that.”
“But Ethan couldn’t call you.”
“He couldn’t tell you he was scared.”
“He couldn’t tell you Serena pinched him beneath his sleeves where no one would notice.”
Victor’s eyes became dangerous.
“She did what?”
Lily swallowed.
“She would squeeze his arms when he cried.”
“She said he needed discipline.”
“She would shut him alone in the dark laundry room for two or three minutes because she said babies learned faster when they were frightened.”
Victor stood so abruptly the chair slid backward.
“She locked my son in a room?”
“I stopped her whenever I could.”
“How many times?”
“Three.”
Victor looked as if something inside him had cracked.
“Why didn’t you go to the police?”
Lily laughed bitterly.
“The police?”
She gestured around the private hospital bearing the Blackwood name.
“Your family has judges at your Christmas parties.”
“Detectives call Gabriel before they enter your property.”
“Half of Chicago is afraid to say your name too loudly.”
Victor’s eyes narrowed.
“So you were afraid of me.”
“Yes.”
He looked almost surprised.
Lily continued before courage failed her.
“I’m still afraid of you.”
Victor was silent.
“But I’m more afraid of what happens to Ethan if everyone around him is too scared to tell you the truth.”
Victor slowly sat again.
It was the first time in six months Lily had spoken to him as if he were simply a man.
Not a boss.
Not a legend.
Not the name that made people lower their voices.
A father.
“You said you kept photographs.”
Victor said.
“Yes.”
“Of injuries?”
“Some.”
“Why didn’t the doctors find older fractures?”
“Because she was careful.”
Lily looked down.
“Until today.”
Victor’s hand closed into a fist.
“The records in the nursery.”
He said.
“My men are retrieving them now.”
Lily immediately looked alarmed.
“No.”
Victor frowned.
“What?”
“Not Gabriel.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know who took my note.”
Victor went still.
Lily stared at him.
“I gave the first message to Gabriel.”
“You said that.”
“He told me you never received it.”
“Correct.”
“Then I left the second note in your office.”
“And someone removed it.”
“Yes.”
Lily’s voice lowered.
“Who controls security around your office?”
Victor’s eyes changed.
Neither needed to say Gabriel’s name.
“That’s a serious accusation.”
“I’m not accusing him.”
“Then what are you doing?”
“I’m telling you not to trust anyone simply because you’ve trusted them before.”
Victor leaned back.
“You understand Gabriel has been with me for seventeen years.”
“So Serena has known you for twelve.”
That silenced him.
Lily did not enjoy the victory.
There was no victory in any of this.
An hour later, a nurse entered.
“Mr. Blackwood?”
Victor stood.
The pediatric specialist was waiting outside.
Victor looked at Lily.
She could see the question in his face.
“Go.”
She said.
He left.
Lily remained alone.
Or she thought she was alone.
Five minutes later, her door opened.
Serena walked in.
Lily’s blood turned cold.
Serena wore a hospital coat over her dress.
Her hair had been pulled into a loose knot.
She looked almost ordinary.
That made her more frightening.
“How did you get in here?”
Lily whispered.
Serena closed the door.
“You really should stop underestimating me.”
Lily reached for the call button.
Serena held up a hand.
“I wouldn’t.”
Lily froze.
Serena smiled.
“Because the first thing Victor will ask is how I got past his security.”
“And the second thing he’ll ask is who helped me.”
Lily’s fingers remained inches from the button.
“You hurt Ethan.”
Serena’s smile disappeared.
“You know nothing about Ethan.”
“I know he cries when he sees you.”
The insult landed.
Serena stepped closer.
“You think Victor cares about you because he sat beside your bed?”
“I don’t care what Victor thinks of me.”
“You should.”
Serena lowered her voice.
“Because by tomorrow morning, he’s going to know who Lily Bennett really is.”
Lily stopped breathing.
Serena saw the reaction.
“There she is.”
She whispered.
“The little liar.”
Lily’s face went pale.
“How do you know that name?”
Serena smiled again.
“Your father kept records too.”
Lily’s hands turned cold.
“My father is dead.”
“I know.”
Serena leaned near the bed.
“I watched them close his coffin.”
Lily’s heart slammed against her ribs.
“You knew my father?”
“Everyone who mattered knew Thomas Bennett.”
Serena said.
“Victor’s father certainly did.”
Lily stared at her.
Thomas Bennett had died eight years earlier.
Officially, a drunk driver had hit his car outside Milwaukee.
Lily had been seventeen.
She had spent years believing his death had been random.
Serena’s expression told her it had not been.
“What did my father have to do with the Blackwoods?”
Serena tilted her head.
“You really don’t know?”
Lily’s silence answered.
Serena laughed softly.
“How precious.”
She stepped back.
“Ask Victor what his father did to yours.”
“Get out.”
“Oh, I will.”
Serena touched the door handle.
“But first, some advice.”
She looked back.
“If you give Victor those recordings, you won’t survive long enough to testify about them.”
Lily’s throat tightened.
“Is that a threat?”
“No.”
Serena opened the door.
“It’s the first honest thing I’ve ever said to you.”
She slipped into the hallway.
Lily hit the call button.
Two nurses arrived.
By the time security searched the floor, Serena was gone.
Victor returned twenty minutes later.
He entered furious.
“How did she get in?”
Lily looked at him.
“I don’t know.”
Victor turned on Gabriel.
“You said she was under guard.”
“She is.”
Gabriel replied.
Victor stared.
“What does that mean?”
Gabriel checked his phone.
Then his face changed.
“Boss.”
“What?”
“Serena is still in the secured suite upstairs.”
Lily’s stomach dropped.
“No.”
Gabriel turned the screen toward Victor.
A live camera showed Serena sitting in a chair inside a locked hospital room.
Victor looked at Lily.
“She was here.”
Lily insisted.
“She stood right there.”
Victor stared at the empty space beside her bed.
Then his gaze moved to the door.
“Pull the hallway video.”
Gabriel did.
The footage showed nurses walking past.
A doctor.
Two guards.
No Serena.
Lily felt suddenly sick.
“That’s impossible.”
Victor stepped toward the monitor.
“Go back.”
Gabriel rewound it.
Nothing.
Then Victor noticed something.
“Stop.”
The timestamp jumped from 9:42 p.m. to 9:49 p.m.
Seven minutes were missing.
Gabriel’s face hardened.
“Someone cut the feed.”
Victor looked at him.
Gabriel looked genuinely shocked.
That did not make Lily trust him.
Victor turned to her.
“What did Serena say?”
Lily hesitated.
Then told him.
Everything.
When she reached her father’s name, Victor became very still.
“You knew Thomas Bennett?”
Lily asked.
Victor did not answer immediately.
“Victor.”
“Yes.”
Her chest tightened.
“How?”
Victor looked toward Gabriel.
“Leave us.”
Gabriel left.
Victor closed the door.
Then he sat beside Lily again.
“Your father was an accountant.”
“I know.”
“No.”
Victor said quietly.
“You know what he told you he was.”
Lily stared at him.
“He worked for my father.”
The room seemed to tilt.
“For how long?”
“Nearly fifteen years.”
“What did he do?”
Victor’s voice lowered.
“He kept two sets of books.”
Lily’s mouth went dry.
“One legal.”
“One that documented everything my father never wanted law enforcement to see.”
“My father was a criminal?”
“Your father was trying to get out.”
Victor said.
Lily searched his face.
“Did your family kill him?”
Victor’s answer came without hesitation.
“No.”
“Do you know who did?”
Victor was silent.
Lily’s eyes filled.
“You do.”
“I know what my father believed.”
“What?”
Victor looked directly at her.
“He believed Thomas Bennett stole something before he died.”
“What?”
“A ledger.”
Lily shook her head.
“My father didn’t leave me anything.”
“Maybe he did.”
Victor said.
“And maybe you never knew what it was.”
Lily stared at him.
Victor continued.
“That ledger contained names.”
“Politicians.”
“Judges.”
“Police officials.”
“Businessmen.”
“And people inside my father’s organization.”
Lily felt her hands begin to shake.
“Why would Serena know about it?”
“That is exactly what I intend to find out.”
Victor stood.
His phone rang.
He answered.
His expression changed almost immediately.
“What do you mean it’s gone?”
Lily sat straighter.
Victor’s eyes became black.
“When?”
A pause.
“Who had access?”
Another pause.
Then Victor lowered the phone.
Lily whispered.
“What happened?”
Victor looked at her.
“The floorboard beneath Ethan’s rocking chair was opened.”
Lily stopped breathing.
“The recordings?”
“Gone.”
“All of them?”
Victor nodded.
Lily covered her mouth.
Only three people knew where those recordings were.
Lily.
Victor.
And whoever had been listening outside her hospital room.
Victor’s phone vibrated again.
A photograph appeared.
It had been sent from an unknown number.
Victor opened it.
His face drained of color.
Lily reached for the phone.
The photograph showed a dusty black ledger lying on a wooden table.
Beside it was an old family photograph.
Victor’s father stood in the center.
Thomas Bennett stood beside him.
And on the other side stood a much younger Serena Montigue.
Lily stared at the image.
At the bottom of the message were six words.
YOUR FATHERS STARTED THIS TOGETHER.
May you like
Then another message appeared.
THE BABY WILL FINISH IT.
