Chapter 2 - The Man Upstairs
The first security guard reached the staircase before the broken glass finished falling.
Victor did not shout.
He never needed to.
“Lock the property.”
The command was calm.
That made everyone move faster.
“No vehicles leave.”
“No calls go out.”
“Find whoever is upstairs.”
Serena looked toward the landing.
For half a second, Lily saw recognition in her eyes.
Victor saw it too.
“Who is up there?”
“No one.”
“Wrong answer.”
“I don’t know.”
Victor handed Ethan back to Lily.
“Take him into the library.”
Lily hesitated.
“Mr. Blackwood—”
“Stay away from the windows.”
Lily nodded.
She carried Ethan through the double doors.
Victor followed.
Serena tried to follow them.
Two guards blocked her.
“Victor.”
He stopped.
She gave him the expression Lily had seen Serena use at charity dinners whenever Victor disagreed with her.
Soft eyes.
Controlled breathing.
A slight tremble of the lower lip.
“I’m frightened.”
Victor looked at her.
“So is my son.”
The library doors closed between them.
Dr. Jonathan Ames arrived sixteen minutes later.
He had treated the Blackwood family for almost fifteen years.
He examined Ethan privately while Victor stood beside the table.
Lily waited near the wall.
Ethan cried when the doctor touched his wrist.
Victor’s face hardened.
“Is it broken?”
“I don’t think so.”
Dr. Ames moved Ethan’s fingers carefully.
“But I want imaging.”
“He also appears unusually lethargic.”
Lily spoke quickly.
“He barely slept last night.”
Dr. Ames looked at her.
“Any vomiting?”
“Twice this week.”
“Fever?”
“No.”
“Change in appetite?”
“Yes.”
Victor turned toward Lily.
“You didn’t tell me.”
“I told Serena.”
The room became quiet.
Victor’s jaw moved once.
Dr. Ames continued.
“Has he been given any medication?”
Lily looked at Victor.
Victor looked toward the recorder lying on the desk.
“We’re trying to determine that.”
Dr. Ames frowned.
“What does that mean?”
Victor pressed play.
The line about changing the dosage filled the room.
Dr. Ames’s expression changed.
“Who is the man speaking?”
“We don’t know yet.”
Victor replayed it.
Dr. Ames listened more carefully.
Then something in his face tightened.
Victor noticed immediately.
“You recognize him.”
“No.”
“You hesitated.”
“I was trying to identify the voice.”
Victor stepped closer.
“And?”
“I can’t.”
Victor studied him.
Dr. Ames looked away first.
That was enough.
Victor picked up his phone.
“Marco.”
A voice answered immediately.
“Yes.”
“Dr. Ames stays here.”
The doctor stiffened.
Victor continued.
“Nobody speaks to him without me.”
“Victor, that is unnecessary.”
Victor ended the call.
“Maybe.”
Dr. Ames looked offended.
“I have cared for your family for years.”
“Then you understand why I’m careful.”
Lily watched the doctor.
Something about his hands caught her attention.
They were trembling.
Only slightly.
But they were trembling.
A security guard entered.
“Sir.”
Victor looked at him.
“Second floor is clear.”
“Then who broke the window?”
“We found blood on the frame.”
“Fresh?”
“Yes.”
“Outside?”
The guard nodded.
“Someone climbed from the study balcony to the service roof.”
Victor’s eyes narrowed.
“That roof drops thirty feet.”
“There’s a rope.”
Victor turned toward Lily.
“Was anyone working upstairs today?”
“No.”
Serena had dismissed most of the household for the afternoon.
Lily had thought it was because Serena wanted privacy.
Now it felt different.
Victor walked toward the door.
“Stay with Ethan.”
Lily nodded.
He stopped beside her.
“If Serena comes through that door, press this.”
He placed a small black device in Lily’s hand.
“What is it?”
“Alarm.”
Lily looked at him.
“And if someone else comes?”
Victor met her eyes.
“Press it faster.”
Then he left.
The second-floor study looked untouched except for the broken window.
Victor walked toward the desk.
His security chief, Marco Velez, stood beside the curtains.
Marco had worked for Victor since before Ethan was born.
He was one of the few people Victor trusted without hesitation.
“The intruder knew the cameras.”
Victor looked at him.
“How?”
“Every blind spot.”
Marco pointed outside.
“He entered from the northwest wall.”
“Passed behind the maintenance shed.”
“Used the kitchen service entrance.”
“No camera captured his face.”
“Inside footage?”
“Deleted.”
Victor turned.
“How much?”
“Forty-three minutes.”
Victor’s expression darkened.
“That takes administrator access.”
“Yes.”
“How many people have it?”
“Six.”
“Names.”
“You.”
“Me.”
“Charles in systems.”
“Mrs. Donnelly.”
“The security office.”
Marco paused.
“And Serena.”
Victor looked toward the broken window.
“Remove her access.”
“Already done.”
“Check every staff login.”
“We are.”
Victor walked to the desk.
A drawer stood slightly open.
He pulled it fully out.
Empty.
“What belonged here?”
Marco frowned.
Victor looked at the brass label under the drawer.
TRUST DOCUMENTS.
Marco swore under his breath.
Victor stared into the empty space.
His late wife, Isabella, had established a trust for Ethan before her death.
The documents inside the study were duplicates.
The originals remained in a private vault.
Almost nobody knew that.
But whoever had broken into the study believed the copies mattered.
Victor turned.
“Find Serena’s brother.”
Marco’s eyes narrowed.
“Damien?”
“Where is he?”
“I thought he was in Miami.”
“Thought?”
Marco reached for his phone.
Victor returned downstairs.
Serena was waiting in the foyer with two guards.
She had regained her composure.
“You’re treating me like a prisoner.”
Victor walked past her.
“You tried to grab evidence.”
“Because Lily has been spying on me.”
“You were recorded discussing medication.”
“Not for Ethan.”
Victor stopped.
Serena seemed to realize too late that she had answered too quickly.
“Who was it for?”
“Myself.”
“What medication?”
Serena hesitated.
“Anxiety.”
“Name.”
“I don’t remember.”
Victor stared at her.
“You don’t remember what medication you take?”
“I’m under pressure.”
“You’re lying.”
Her face hardened.
“So now everything I say is a lie?”
“Until I know otherwise.”
Serena crossed her arms.
“Fine.”
“Then ask your saintly nanny why she was in your office last month.”
Lily had just stepped back into the foyer.
She froze.
Victor turned.
“You were in my office?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Ethan crawled in while the door was open.”
Serena laughed.
“She stayed twelve minutes.”
Lily looked at her.
“How would you know?”
Serena smiled.
“Because unlike you, I understand security cameras.”
Victor’s gaze sharpened.
“What did you do in my office, Lily?”
“I picked Ethan up.”
“He knocked a folder from the desk.”
“I put the papers back.”
“What papers?”
“I didn’t read them.”
Serena walked closer.
“Oh, come on.”
“You expect him to believe that?”
Victor raised his hand.
“Enough.”
Serena looked at him.
“You know almost nothing about her.”
Victor looked toward Lily.
Lily swallowed.
It was true.
Victor knew her employment history.
Her references.
Her address.
The fact she had worked as a pediatric nurse before becoming a private nanny.
But he knew very little else.
Serena sensed the opening.
“Ask her why she left St. Matthew’s Hospital.”
Lily’s face changed.
Victor noticed.
“Why did you leave?”
Lily looked down.
“I was dismissed.”
Victor waited.
“For what?”
Lily inhaled slowly.
“For accusing a physician of falsifying medication records.”
Serena smiled.
“And did anyone believe you?”
“No.”
“Was the physician charged?”
“No.”
“Was any evidence found?”
“No.”
Victor looked at Lily.
“Name of the physician.”
Lily’s eyes moved toward the library.
Toward Dr. Ames.
Victor’s expression changed before she answered.
“Jonathan Ames.”
Silence.
Victor turned toward the closed library door.
Lily continued quietly.
“He was head of pediatric medicine.”
“Three years ago, I noticed medication disappearing from a restricted cabinet.”
“I reported it.”
“Dr. Ames said my access card had been used.”
“He accused me of stealing it.”
“I was fired.”
Serena gave a short laugh.
“So the woman accusing me already has a history of accusing doctors.”
Victor ignored her.
He opened the library door.
Dr. Ames was standing by the desk.
His face was gray.
Victor entered.
“You knew Lily before she worked here.”
Dr. Ames said nothing.
Victor shut the door behind him.
“Answer me.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you say so?”
“It wasn’t relevant.”
“You were just recorded discussing dosage with the woman who may have been hurting my son.”
“That is not my voice.”
“You recognized Lily.”
Dr. Ames looked toward her.
“I recognized her when I came in.”
“And you kept quiet.”
“I was trying not to complicate the situation.”
Victor stared at him.
Dr. Ames’s calm façade began to crack.
“I had nothing to do with this.”
Victor pressed play on recording fourteen again.
The unknown man spoke.
“If the boy keeps reacting like this, somebody will notice.”
Dr. Ames shook his head.
“That is not me.”
Lily listened.
She had heard Dr. Ames’s voice dozens of times years ago.
She had thought the recording sounded familiar.
But now, hearing them close together, she noticed something.
“The accent is different.”
Victor looked at her.
“What?”
“That isn’t Dr. Ames.”
Dr. Ames exhaled.
Lily replayed the recording.
“The man in the recording pronounces ‘notice’ differently.”
“Dr. Ames doesn’t speak that way.”
Victor looked at the doctor.
“Then why were you nervous?”
Dr. Ames closed his eyes.
“Because I know who does.”
Everyone went still.
Victor stepped closer.
“Name.”
Dr. Ames looked terrified.
“You don’t understand who you’re dealing with.”
Victor’s mouth hardened.
“I hear that sentence a lot.”
Dr. Ames looked toward Ethan.
Then toward the guards.
Finally he whispered.
“Damien Montigue.”
Serena’s brother.
Victor’s future brother-in-law.
Lily felt a chill.
Victor did not move.
Dr. Ames continued.
“Damien came to me six months ago.”
“He wanted access to medications.”
“What medications?”
“Sedatives.”
“Antihistamines.”
“Anything that could make a child appear chronically ill.”
Victor’s expression became terrifyingly calm.
Lily covered her mouth.
“Why?”
“I refused.”
“Then why didn’t you tell me?”
Dr. Ames looked ashamed.
“Because he threatened my daughter.”
Victor stared at him.
Dr. Ames continued.
“He showed me photographs of her leaving school.”
“He knew her schedule.”
“He knew where my wife worked.”
Victor’s voice was barely audible.
“So you stayed silent.”
“Yes.”
“And my son may have been poisoned.”
Dr. Ames lowered his eyes.
“Yes.”
Victor turned away.
For several seconds nobody spoke.
Then Marco entered.
His face told Victor something was wrong.
“We found Damien.”
“Where?”
“Not Miami.”
Victor waited.
Marco looked toward Serena.
“He entered New York this morning.”
Serena’s face went blank.
Victor noticed.
“Where is he now?”
Marco’s jaw tightened.
“We traced his phone.”
“Last signal came from inside this property.”
Nobody breathed.
Marco continued.
“And there’s something else.”
“What?”
“The device was connected to the mansion’s Wi-Fi eleven minutes ago.”
Serena whispered.
“That’s impossible.”
Victor looked at her.
Marco raised his phone.
“The connection came from Ethan’s nursery.”
Lily turned toward the staircase.
Her heart stopped.
She had left Ethan’s favorite blanket upstairs that morning.
She also remembered something else.
A bottle of formula Serena had insisted remain beside the crib.
Victor looked at Lily.
“What is it?”
“The bottle.”
“What bottle?”
“Serena prepared one this morning.”
Serena’s eyes widened.
Lily ran.
Victor shouted after her.
“Lily.”
But she was already on the stairs.
She reached the nursery first.
The door was open.
The room looked empty.
Then Lily saw the bottle.
It was no longer beside the crib.
It sat on the changing table.
The nipple was wet.
Lily’s blood turned cold.
Behind her, Victor entered carrying Ethan.
Lily pointed.
“Don’t give him anything.”
Victor stared at the bottle.
Marco picked it up using a handkerchief.
There were fingerprints on the glass.
Victor looked at Serena, who had been brought upstairs by the guards.
Serena shook her head.
“I didn’t touch that after breakfast.”
Marco examined the base.
Then he saw something taped underneath.
A tiny flash drive.
Victor removed it carefully.
“What is that?”
Serena whispered.
“I don’t know.”
Victor looked at Lily.
“Computer.”
They opened the files on a secure laptop.
There was only one video.
It had been recorded two nights earlier.
The image showed Serena standing in the nursery.
She was holding Ethan.
Damien Montigue stood beside her.
His face was unmistakable.
Victor’s hand closed into a fist.
Then Damien spoke.
“If Victor refuses to change the trust, we go to the second plan.”
Serena answered.
“What if Lily talks?”
Damien smiled.
“Then Lily becomes the woman who hurt the baby.”
Lily stared at the screen.
The recording continued.
Serena looked toward the crib.
“And Ethan?”
Damien shrugged.
“If it reaches that point, Ethan becomes the tragedy that makes everybody stop asking questions.”
Victor stopped breathing.
Lily looked at him.
His face had become completely expressionless.
Then another voice came from the computer speakers.
A voice nobody expected.
“Victor can never know the child isn’t the only target.”
Victor slowly turned toward the screen.
A third person stepped into the recorded frame.
Lily recognized him immediately.
So did Victor.
Marco whispered.
“No.”
The man on the video was Victor’s own attorney.
Thomas Reed.
The man who controlled every Blackwood trust.
May you like
And the man Victor had trusted for twenty-two years.
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