Chapter 4 - THE DEAD BROTHER
Victor Blackwood had buried his younger brother at twenty-three years old.
At least, that was what he had believed.
Adrian Blackwood’s casket had been closed because the body had been badly burned after a warehouse explosion on the South Side.
Victor remembered carrying the casket with five other men.
He remembered his mother collapsing against the church pew.
He remembered his father standing like stone through the entire service.
He remembered thinking grief had killed whatever softness remained inside the Blackwood family.
Now he stood inside Elena’s abandoned studio staring at a photograph taken eleven months earlier.
Adrian was alive in it.
Older.
Thinner.
A scar ran from his temple toward his jaw.
But Victor knew the shape of his brother’s shoulders.
He knew the way Adrian tilted his head.
He knew the ring on his right hand.
Their mother had given them matching rings when they were teenagers.
Victor still wore his.
The photograph trembled slightly between his fingers.
Lily noticed.
She pretended not to.
“When was the picture taken?”
Gabriel asked.
Victor flipped it over.
A handwritten date appeared.
“October seventeenth.”
Lily frowned.
“That was two days before Elena’s crash.”
Victor nodded.
Gabriel stepped closer.
“Boss, photographs can be manipulated.”
“Not this one.”
“You can’t know that.”
Victor turned toward him.
“I know my brother.”
Gabriel’s face tightened.
“You knew him twelve years ago.”
The words were reasonable.
They still sounded dangerous.
Victor handed the photograph to the technician.
“Authenticate it.”
The man nodded quickly.
Victor walked toward the studio window.
Outside, rainwater still clung to the garden roses.
Lily watched him.
“What happened to Adrian?”
Victor did not turn around.
“He wanted out.”
“Out of the family?”
“Out of everything.”
Victor replied.
“He hated what our father was building.”
“He wanted to leave Chicago.”
“Did your father allow that?”
A humorless smile crossed Victor’s face.
“My father didn’t allow people to leave.”
Lily thought of her own father.
Thomas Bennett.
Another man who had tried to leave.
Another man who had died.
“What happened at the warehouse?”
She asked.
Victor stared through the glass.
“Adrian called me.”
“He said he had proof our father had ordered something he couldn’t forgive.”
“What?”
“He never told me.”
Victor’s jaw tightened.
“He asked me to meet him.”
“Did you?”
“I was late.”
Victor replied.
“By eleven minutes.”
“The warehouse exploded before I arrived.”
Lily was silent.
Victor continued.
“They found a body wearing Adrian’s watch.”
“His dental records matched.”
“His ring was recovered.”
“And you believed it.”
“Yes.”
“Your father?”
“He arranged the funeral.”
Victor turned slowly.
That sentence changed the room.
Lily saw it happen.
Victor saw it too.
His father had arranged everything.
The identification.
The funeral.
The closed casket.
The records.
Gabriel looked uneasy.
“If Adrian survived, why stay hidden for twelve years?”
Victor looked at the photograph.
“That’s what I’m going to ask him.”
“How?”
Victor took out his phone.
“Find him.”
Gabriel exhaled.
“With one old photograph?”
“Start with Serena.”
Victor replied.
“Then Roman.”
Lily looked up.
“You never told me who Roman is.”
Victor’s eyes darkened.
“Roman Vale.”
Gabriel answered before Victor could.
“He runs what’s left of the Vale organization.”
Lily had heard the name.
Everyone in Chicago had.
The Vales and Blackwoods had fought for decades.
Restaurants had changed ownership after shootings no newspaper described accurately.
Construction contracts shifted overnight.
Politicians avoided being photographed with either family while accepting donations from companies linked to both.
Lily’s stomach tightened.
“Elena said Serena was messaging him.”
Victor nodded.
“And Serena told Elena you would blame her.”
“Yes.”
Lily looked at him carefully.
“Would you have?”
Victor did not answer.
That answer was enough.
The technician returned an hour later.
“The photograph is real.”
Victor looked up.
“No signs of digital manipulation.”
“Metadata?”
“Original device was a Leica Q2 registered to Elena Blackwood.”
Victor’s expression flickered.
Elena had loved that camera.
“She took it.”
The technician nodded.
“Most likely.”
Victor looked at the image again.
Elena had seen Adrian.
She had photographed him beside Serena.
And she had hidden the photograph in an envelope addressed to Victor.
She had been trying to tell him something.
She died before she could.
“Where is Serena now?”
Victor asked.
Gabriel checked his phone.
“Still at the hospital.”
“Bring her here.”
Lily turned sharply.
“Here?”
Victor looked at her.
“Yes.”
“She already got into my hospital room once.”
Gabriel frowned.
“We still haven’t proven that.”
Lily glared at him.
“I know what I saw.”
Victor raised a hand.
“Enough.”
He looked at Gabriel.
“Bring Serena to the main library.”
“No phone.”
“No attorney.”
Gabriel hesitated.
“She’s already requesting counsel.”
“Then she can request one after I ask her why my dead brother is standing beside her in my wife’s photograph.”
Victor walked toward the door.
Lily followed.
He stopped.
“You stay here.”
“No.”
Victor turned.
“That wasn’t a suggestion.”
“She threatened me.”
“That is exactly why you’re not entering the room.”
“She also thinks I don’t know anything.”
Lily replied.
“If I’m there, she may react differently.”
Victor studied her.
“You think you can read Serena?”
“I think she hates me enough to forget herself around me.”
Victor almost smiled.
Almost.
“That may be the first useful thing hatred has ever done.”
Two hours later, Serena sat in the Blackwood library.
Her wrists were not restrained.
Victor did not need restraints to make the room feel like a cage.
Gabriel stood near the door.
Lily sat across from Serena.
Victor remained standing.
Serena looked at Lily first.
“Feeling better?”
Lily’s stomach tightened.
“Much.”
Serena smiled.
“I’m glad.”
Victor placed the photograph on the table.
The smile vanished.
Not slowly.
Instantly.
Victor saw it.
Lily saw it.
Gabriel saw it.
Serena recovered within seconds.
“I don’t understand.”
Victor said nothing.
Serena looked at the picture.
“Who is that?”
Victor walked behind her.
“My brother.”
Serena laughed once.
“Your brother is dead.”
“That’s what I thought.”
Serena pushed the photograph away.
“This is ridiculous.”
Victor moved it back.
“My wife took it.”
Serena’s fingers twitched.
Lily noticed.
“Elena liked photographs.”
Serena replied.
Victor leaned down.
“This was taken two days before she died.”
Serena looked up at him.
“So?”
“So my dead brother was photographed standing beside the woman who later became my fiancée two days before my wife died.”
Victor’s voice remained low.
“That creates questions.”
Serena crossed her arms.
“Then ask Adrian.”
Silence.
Victor’s eyes sharpened.
Serena froze.
She had said the name.
Nobody had told her which brother was in the photograph.
Victor straightened.
Gabriel looked at Lily.
Serena realized her mistake.
Her face remained composed.
But her throat moved.
Victor pulled out a chair.
He sat directly across from her.
“You knew he was alive.”
Serena said nothing.
“For how long?”
Nothing.
Victor leaned closer.
“Serena.”
She finally smiled.
“You have no idea what your family is.”
Victor’s face hardened.
“Answer me.”
“You think your father told you everything?”
“No.”
“You think Elena told you everything?”
Victor’s eyes flashed.
Serena continued.
“You think Adrian disappeared because he was afraid?”
“Why did he disappear?”
Serena tilted her head.
“Ask your father.”
“My father is dead.”
“Convenient.”
Victor’s hand flattened on the table.
Lily could feel rage rolling off him.
Serena seemed to enjoy it.
Then Lily spoke.
“Did Adrian help you hurt Ethan?”
Serena’s eyes snapped toward her.
“No.”
It came too quickly.
Victor noticed.
Lily did too.
“So he is involved.”
“I didn’t say that.”
“You didn’t have to.”
Serena’s lips tightened.
Lily leaned forward.
“Did Adrian help kill Elena?”
Serena stood.
Victor’s hand closed around her wrist before she took one step.
“Sit.”
Serena stared at him.
Victor released her.
She slowly sat again.
Then Serena looked at Lily.
“Your father asked too many questions.”
Lily’s blood ran cold.
Victor’s gaze sharpened.
“Thomas Bennett?”
Serena smiled.
“He thought numbers made him powerful.”
“He thought a ledger could protect him.”
Lily’s voice shook.
“What happened to him?”
Serena leaned toward her.
“He trusted the wrong Blackwood.”
Victor slammed his palm onto the table.
“Enough.”
Serena did not flinch.
“Which Blackwood?”
Victor demanded.
Serena looked at him.
Then laughed softly.
“You still don’t understand.”
“Understand what?”
“Your father wasn’t the only Blackwood giving orders.”
Victor’s expression changed.
Serena saw it.
She leaned back.
“There were three brothers in your father’s generation.”
Victor’s eyes narrowed.
“My father had one brother.”
“That’s what the family told you.”
Serena replied.
Lily looked between them.
“What does that mean?”
Serena’s smile returned.
“It means Victor has spent his entire life believing a family history someone edited for him.”
Victor’s phone rang.
He ignored it.
It rang again.
Gabriel checked his own phone.
His face changed.
“Boss.”
Victor looked at him.
Gabriel held out the screen.
A security camera showed the front gate of the Blackwood estate.
A black sedan had stopped outside.
A man stood beside it.
Tall.
Thin.
Gray streaks ran through his dark hair.
A scar crossed the side of his face.
Victor stared.
Lily looked from the phone to the photograph on the table.
The man was older now.
But unmistakable.
Adrian Blackwood was standing outside the gate.
Alive.
Victor rose.
Serena whispered something.
Lily almost missed it.
“No.”
Victor turned toward her.
For the first time since the nightmare began, Serena looked genuinely terrified.
Victor stared.
“You’re afraid of him.”
Serena’s face lost its color.
Outside, Adrian looked directly into the security camera.
Then he held up a handwritten sign.
May you like
Three words were written across it.
ETHAN IS NEXT.
