Chapter 9 - The Hidden Blackwood
The man’s name was Adrian Blackwood.
There was no birth certificate in the family archive.
No photograph on the walls.
No mention in company histories.
Yet bank records showed that Alexander Blackwood had sent money to someone with those initials for more than thirty years.
Catherine stared at the payments.
“Dad had a brother.”
Victor looked at the screen.
“Or someone he treated like one.”
Marco traced the account overseas.
The money ended at a private medical facility in Austria.
Patient name redacted.
The facility specialized in long-term neurological care.
Victor made one call.
Three hours later, they received a photograph.
An elderly man sat in a wheelchair near a window.
His face was thinner than Alexander’s.
But the Blackwood resemblance was unmistakable.
Catherine whispered.
“Oh my God.”
Victor stared.
“Adrian.”
The facility confirmed he had been admitted twenty-nine years earlier.
Paid entirely through Blackwood-controlled accounts.
He had suffered a traumatic brain injury.
Cause listed as industrial accident.
Victor searched old company files.
There had been an accident.
A crane collapse at Pier 19.
One worker permanently injured.
The worker’s name had been changed in the official report.
Victor’s father had hidden his own brother.
Why?
Lily sat with Ethan while Victor reconstructed a family secret older than she was.
Then a new detail emerged.
Adrian had a visitor every December.
Same woman.
Evelyn Montigue.
Victor stared at the visitor logs.
Catherine whispered.
“They knew each other.”
Marco found a photograph from 1992.
Evelyn.
Adrian.
Together.
Serena’s birth date was eleven months later.
Victor understood.
“Serena might be Alexander’s daughter.”
“And Damien could be Adrian’s son.”
Catherine nodded.
“Cousins raised as siblings.”
Victor looked toward Ethan.
The family tree had become a weapon.
Evelyn had spent decades placing each person exactly where she needed them.
But why?
A call came from federal prosecutors.
Thomas Reed was ready to discuss Isabella.
Victor went personally.
He sat behind one-way glass while Thomas was questioned.
Thomas looked twenty years older than he had the day before.
The prosecutor asked.
“Did you participate in Isabella Blackwood’s death?”
Thomas closed his eyes.
“No.”
“Did you know someone intended to harm her?”
“Yes.”
Victor’s jaw tightened.
“Who?”
“Evelyn.”
“How?”
“She wanted Isabella frightened.”
“Not dead.”
Victor almost laughed.
The prosecutor continued.
“What happened?”
Thomas swallowed.
“Evelyn arranged for someone to tamper with Isabella’s car.”
“Brakes?”
“No.”
“Steering sensor.”
“She wanted the car to malfunction.”
“Force Isabella to stop using Victor’s security detail.”
“That makes no sense.”
Thomas lowered his head.
“The plan changed.”
“Who changed it?”
Thomas looked toward the mirrored glass.
He knew Victor was behind it.
“I did.”
Victor became still.
Thomas continued.
“Isabella found documents showing the Continuity Trust.”
“She realized Evelyn existed.”
“She realized Serena was Alexander’s daughter.”
“She threatened to tell Victor.”
“So you killed her?”
Thomas’s voice broke.
“I ordered the mechanic to damage the brake line.”
Victor shut his eyes.
Lily was not in the room.
Catherine was not there.
Only Victor heard the confession.
For two years he had imagined Isabella’s final seconds.
Now he knew someone had designed them.
The prosecutor asked.
“Why?”
Thomas whispered.
“Because Evelyn had something on me.”
“What?”
“My son.”
Thomas covered his face.
“He had killed someone while driving drunk.”
“Evelyn had the evidence.”
“She told me if I didn’t help her, she would give it to police.”
“You traded Isabella’s life for your son’s freedom.”
Thomas began crying.
Victor turned away from the glass.
He felt nothing.
That frightened him.
Then Thomas said something else.
“But I didn’t know Ethan would be next.”
Victor turned back.
“When did you find out?”
“Six months ago.”
“What did you do?”
“I tried to stop it.”
Victor almost entered the room.
The prosecutor asked.
“How?”
“I recommended Lily Harper.”
Victor froze.
Thomas continued.
“I knew Lily had caught Dr. Ames before.”
“I knew she watched medication carefully.”
“I thought if anyone could notice something wrong with Ethan, she would.”
Victor stared.
The world shifted again.
Lily had believed Thomas placed her to frame her.
Thomas claimed he placed her to protect Ethan.
The prosecutor asked.
“Then why forge evidence against her?”
Thomas looked ashamed.
“Because Evelyn found out why I had hired her.”
“She ordered Rachel to reactivate Lily’s records.”
“I couldn’t stop it without exposing myself.”
Victor’s face hardened.
Cowardice disguised as protection.
Thomas had tried to save Ethan only as long as saving him did not endanger Thomas.
The prosecutor leaned forward.
“Who is the final beneficiary of the plan?”
Thomas shook his head.
“I don’t know.”
“You expect us to believe that?”
“I know Evelyn thinks she is.”
Victor narrowed his eyes.
“What does that mean?”
Thomas continued.
“She believes the Continuity Trust gives her the empire.”
“It doesn’t.”
“Why not?”
Thomas gave a tired laugh.
“Because Alexander changed it before he died.”
Victor leaned closer to the glass.
“The original amendment is missing.”
“Where?”
“I don’t know.”
“Who does?”
Thomas hesitated.
“Adrian.”
Victor stared.
The hidden uncle.
The man in Austria.
The injured brother everyone pretended never existed.
Thomas continued.
“Alexander visited Adrian three days before his death.”
“He gave him something.”
“Evelyn has spent fifteen years trying to find it.”
“What?”
“The final codicil.”
The prosecutor frowned.
“What does it say?”
Thomas shook his head.
“I never saw it.”
Victor stepped away.
He called Marco.
“Get the jet ready.”
“For Austria?”
“Yes.”
“What about Ethan?”
Victor looked through the window toward the city.
“He comes with us.”
Lily objected the moment he told her.
“You want to take a sick baby across the Atlantic?”
“He is stable.”
“He is recovering from poisoning.”
“And someone infiltrated this hospital.”
Lily had no answer.
Victor continued.
“I trust the jet more than I trust this building.”
She reluctantly agreed.
Ethan traveled with a pediatric physician.
Catherine remained in New York to coordinate the legal challenge to the forged marriage.
Marco traveled with Victor and Lily.
The flight was quiet.
Halfway across the Atlantic, Lily found Victor awake.
“You knew.”
He looked at her.
“About Isabella?”
She nodded.
“Thomas confessed.”
Victor stared out the window.
“He ordered the brake line damaged.”
Lily sat across from him.
“I’m sorry.”
Victor did not respond.
She did not tell him he should forgive himself.
She did not tell him everything would be fine.
She simply remained there.
After several minutes Victor spoke.
“I spent years punishing men for smaller betrayals.”
“But Thomas sat at my table.”
“He held Ethan.”
“He stood beside Isabella’s grave.”
Lily looked at him.
“Evil survives by looking ordinary long enough.”
Victor finally looked at her.
“That sounded practiced.”
“It is.”
He almost smiled.
Then an alarm sounded from the rear cabin.
Lily stood instantly.
“Ethan.”
They ran.
The pediatrician was unconscious on the floor.
Ethan’s crib was empty.
Lily screamed.
Victor stared.
Impossible.
The aircraft was at thirty-eight thousand feet.
Every door was sealed.
Marco drew his weapon.
They searched the cabin.
Nothing.
Then Lily heard a faint cry.
From the cargo compartment.
Victor ripped open the access hatch.
Ethan lay inside a storage recess, wrapped in a blanket.
Alive.
Lily grabbed him.
The physician began waking.
Victor looked at Marco.
“Who moved him?”
Marco checked the internal cameras.
The footage showed the physician entering the cabin.
Then static.
Then twelve missing minutes.
Victor looked toward the cockpit.
Only five adults besides the doctor were aboard.
Victor.
Lily.
Marco.
Pilot.
Copilot.
One of them had moved Ethan.
Marco’s face changed.
“The pilots.”
Victor looked toward the locked cockpit door.
The aircraft suddenly banked left.
Hard.
Lily nearly fell.
Victor grabbed the wall.
Marco ran toward the cockpit.
“Open the door.”
No response.
The plane began descending.
Victor looked at the flight display.
They were nowhere near Vienna.
Marco checked coordinates.
His face went pale.
“We’re turning south.”
“Toward what?”
Marco stared at the map.
“Croatia.”
Victor frowned.
Then Lily’s phone rang.
No service should have existed.
Yet one message appeared through the aircraft Wi-Fi.
WELCOME TO EUROPE, BROTHER.
Signed:
May you like
DAMIEN.
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