Chapter 4 - The Wedding That Was Never About Love
By sunrise, Victor had converted an entire hospital floor into a controlled zone.
Nobody entered without Marco’s approval.
Nobody left without being logged.
Lily remained beside Ethan.
Victor sat alone in the adjoining room with the recovered calendar open on the table.
BABY FIRST.
FATHER SECOND.
EMPIRE LAST.
Three lines.
Three targets.
Three stages.
Victor had survived ambushes, federal investigations, betrayals, and wars between men who preferred bullets to contracts.
Yet none of those enemies had ever attacked him through a fourteen-month-old child.
That mistake would change everything.
At 8:42 a.m., Catherine arrived.
Victor’s younger sister entered the room wearing yesterday’s clothes.
She took one look at Victor.
“What happened?”
Victor slid the calendar toward her.
Catherine read it.
Her face slowly drained of color.
“Where did you get this?”
“Inside the mansion.”
“Whose handwriting?”
“We’re testing it.”
She looked toward Ethan’s room.
“Is he really poisoned?”
“Yes.”
Catherine closed her eyes.
“Oh, God.”
Victor watched her carefully.
“Who knew about the board transfer on October second?”
Catherine looked back at him.
“You.”
“Me.”
“Thomas.”
“The board.”
“Half the financial press.”
“The public knows the date.”
“Not the exact structure.”
Catherine frowned.
“What structure?”
Victor leaned forward.
“On October second, voting authority over the private holding company transfers from the trustees back to me.”
“Yes.”
“What happens if I die before then?”
Catherine thought.
“The trustees retain control.”
“Who are the trustees?”
Her face changed.
“Thomas.”
“Marco.”
“And me.”
Victor nodded.
“So if someone removes me and Ethan, control lands with three people.”
Catherine’s eyes narrowed.
“And somebody has already tried to steal my copy of the trust.”
“Yes.”
“Which means they may be trying to replace the trust documents.”
“Yes.”
Catherine stood.
“Thomas drafted them.”
“Yes.”
“And Thomas was in that video.”
Victor looked at her.
“Yes.”
Catherine paced.
“This isn’t about Serena getting rich.”
“No.”
“It’s a corporate seizure.”
“Maybe.”
“What do you mean maybe?”
Victor looked toward the hospital glass.
“We still don’t know who is above Thomas.”
Catherine stopped.
“You think there’s someone else?”
Victor remembered the missing security footage.
The stolen trust copy.
Damien entering the property unseen.
The hospital information leak.
“This took too many people.”
Catherine lowered her voice.
“How many?”
Victor looked at her.
“That’s what frightens me.”
Across town, Thomas Reed arrived at his law office at 9:07 a.m.
He found Damien Montigue waiting inside.
Thomas shut the door.
“You were told to disappear.”
Damien looked amused.
“I was told to finish a job.”
“You failed.”
“So did you.”
Thomas walked to his desk.
“Victor has the recording.”
“Then Serena should have destroyed it.”
“Serena is being watched.”
Damien’s smile disappeared.
“What exactly did Victor hear?”
“Enough.”
“How much is enough?”
Thomas looked at him.
“He heard me.”
Damien swore.
Thomas poured water with an unsteady hand.
“We need to move tonight.”
“The wedding plan is dead.”
“No.”
Damien stepped forward.
“The wedding plan is all we have left.”
“Victor will never marry her now.”
“He may not need to.”
Thomas stared.
Damien smiled slowly.
“You lawyers always think signatures happen in front of witnesses.”
Thomas understood.
“That certificate is not enough.”
“It is if the right clerk enters it.”
“You already arranged that?”
“We arranged everything.”
Thomas looked suddenly uneasy.
“Who is we?”
Damien’s smile vanished.
“You know better than to ask.”
At the hospital, Lily fell asleep in the chair beside Ethan.
She woke when his fingers touched her wrist.
His eyes were open.
“Hey.”
Ethan blinked.
Lily smiled despite everything.
“There you are.”
He reached for her.
She lifted him carefully.
His injured wrist had been wrapped.
“You scared me.”
Ethan rested his head against her.
Lily closed her eyes.
A quiet knock came from the door.
Victor stood there.
“You should sleep.”
“So should you.”
“I don’t sleep well.”
“Neither do I.”
Victor entered.
Ethan saw him and reached out.
Victor took the child.
For several minutes there was no mafia boss.
No Blackwood empire.
No armed guards.
Only a father holding his son.
Then Ethan whispered a sound.
“Li.”
Lily froze.
Victor looked down.
Ethan pointed toward Lily.
“Li.”
Lily smiled.
“That’s me.”
Victor looked at her.
“He hasn’t said that before.”
“No.”
“His first word was ‘car.’”
Lily laughed softly.
“That sounds right.”
Victor almost smiled.
Then his phone buzzed.
The moment ended.
Marco entered.
“We found Charles.”
Victor’s expression changed.
“Alive?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“A motel in Queens.”
“Bring him.”
“He’s already talking.”
Victor handed Ethan back to Lily.
“About what?”
Marco looked at the child before answering.
“Serena paid him to disable cameras.”
Victor’s jaw tightened.
“How much?”
“Fifty thousand.”
“And the backpack?”
“He says it wasn’t his.”
“His DNA was on the rope.”
“He admits using the rope.”
“But he says Damien forced him.”
Victor stared.
“Explain.”
Marco handed him a tablet.
A video played.
Charles sat in an interrogation room.
His face was bruised from the fall off the service roof.
“I didn’t know they were hurting the baby.”
“I swear.”
Marco’s recorded voice asked.
“Why were you inside the mansion?”
“To remove the trust papers.”
“Who told you?”
“Damien.”
“Why?”
“He said Serena needed them before the wedding.”
“Why did you run?”
“Because I heard Victor downstairs.”
Charles looked directly into the camera.
“And because Damien told me that if Victor came home early, everybody involved was dead.”
Victor paused the video.
“Everybody involved.”
Marco nodded.
“Charles claims there are at least eight people.”
“Names?”
“He only knows three.”
“Serena.”
“Damien.”
“Thomas.”
Victor waited.
“And the fourth?”
Marco hesitated.
“Someone called The Widow.”
Victor’s eyes narrowed.
Catherine, standing nearby, whispered.
“What Widow?”
Marco shook his head.
“Charles never met her.”
“He says Damien took orders from her.”
Victor stared.
“The Widow.”
Something about the name bothered him.
He had heard it before.
Years ago.
Not as a criminal alias.
As a joke.
A nickname Isabella once used for someone.
Victor searched his memory.
Then it came back.
A Christmas dinner.
Isabella laughing with her cousin.
A woman in a black dress.
Someone had teased her for wearing black after two broken engagements.
The Widow.
Victor’s face changed.
Catherine noticed.
“You know who it is.”
Victor did not answer.
He reached for his phone.
“Find Helena Voss.”
Catherine stared.
“Isabella’s cousin?”
“Yes.”
“She lives in Switzerland.”
“Find her.”
Catherine looked confused.
“Why would Helena care about the Blackwood trust?”
Victor’s voice was quiet.
“Because half of Isabella’s family thought Ethan should never have inherited their land.”
Catherine’s face changed.
The pieces shifted.
Isabella’s inheritance had once belonged to the Voss family.
Her grandfather had bypassed several relatives and left the majority to Isabella.
When Isabella died, it passed to Ethan.
Helena had challenged the trust privately.
She had lost.
Then she had vanished from New York society.
Marco’s phone rang.
He answered.
Listened.
Then looked at Victor.
“We found Helena.”
“Where?”
Marco swallowed.
“She landed at Teterboro yesterday.”
Victor went still.
“Where is she staying?”
“Not a hotel.”
“Then where?”
Marco looked toward Catherine.
“At a private residence registered to Thomas Reed.”
Catherine whispered.
“Oh my God.”
Victor’s phone vibrated.
Unknown number.
He answered.
A woman spoke.
“Victor.”
He recognized the voice immediately.
Helena Voss.
He stood.
“Where are you?”
She laughed softly.
“You still ask questions as if everyone owes you answers.”
“What do you want?”
“What my family should never have lost.”
“Ethan’s inheritance.”
“My inheritance.”
“It was never yours.”
“That depends which version of the will you believe.”
Victor’s eyes narrowed.
“What are you talking about?”
Helena ignored the question.
“I heard your little boy is sick.”
Victor’s face became stone.
“If you mention my son again—”
“You’ll kill me?”
She sounded amused.
“You always were predictable.”
Victor looked at Marco.
Trace the call.
Marco began working.
Helena continued.
“The wedding will happen.”
“No.”
“It already has.”
Victor froze.
“What?”
Helena laughed.
“Ask your lawyer.”
The call ended.
Victor looked at Marco.
“Get Thomas here now.”
Catherine frowned.
“What did she mean?”
Victor already knew.
He just did not want it to be true.
Twenty minutes later, Marco received a photograph from the city clerk’s database.
He stared at it.
Then handed the phone to Victor.
A marriage certificate had been filed three days earlier.
Groom: Victor Alexander Blackwood.
Bride: Serena Elise Montigue.
Victor stared at his forged signature.
The certificate had been notarized.
Witnessed.
Entered legally into the system.
Catherine covered her mouth.
“They married you without you.”
Victor looked at the witness line.
Thomas Reed.
Then at the notary.
Dr. Jonathan Ames.
Lily, standing in the doorway, whispered.
“Dr. Ames?”
Victor looked toward the hall.
The doctor who had supposedly been protecting his daughter from Damien.
The doctor who had claimed he refused to help.
The doctor who was still inside the Blackwood mansion.
Victor called security.
No answer.
He called again.
Nothing.
Marco’s phone rang at the same moment.
He listened for three seconds.
Then his face changed.
“Victor.”
“What?”
“Dr. Ames is gone.”
Victor’s eyes hardened.
“How?”
“The guard outside his room was found unconscious.”
“And Serena?”
Marco looked down.
“The east sitting room is empty.”
Victor turned toward the hospital window.
Serena had escaped.
Dr. Ames had disappeared.
A forged marriage certificate already existed.
And under New York law, until it was challenged and invalidated, Serena could claim to be Victor Blackwood’s wife.
But that was not the worst part.
Marco opened the attached filing.
“There’s an additional document.”
Victor read the title.
TEMPORARY GUARDIANSHIP DECLARATION.
His blood turned cold.
If Victor became incapacitated, Serena Montigue Blackwood had been designated temporary guardian of Ethan.
Victor looked at Lily.
Someone had not been waiting for the wedding.
May you like
The takeover had already begun.
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