Chapter 2 - The Marks No One Had Seen
The emergency entrance of St. Catherine’s Hospital opened before Victor Blackwood’s SUV had fully stopped.
Dr. Elena Moreno was already waiting beneath the white lights.
She had treated Ethan since the day he was born.
She had also been one of the few people who had remained close to Victor after Amelia Blackwood’s death.
Victor stepped from the vehicle with Ethan held against his chest.
The boy had exhausted himself from crying.
His injured arm rested against his body at a strange angle.
His small face was wet and pale.
Lily climbed out behind them with one arm wrapped around her stomach.
Every movement sent a sharp pain through her ribs.
Marco Ruiz followed closely.
Two members of Victor’s security team remained near the entrance.
“Take him immediately,” Victor ordered.
Dr. Moreno did not waste time asking what had happened.
She guided Victor toward a private examination room while nurses brought a pediatric stretcher.
Ethan screamed when Victor tried to place him down.
“Daddy.”
“I’m here.”
Victor kept one hand against his son’s cheek.
“I’m not leaving.”
Lily stopped outside the room.
She felt as if an invisible wall had risen between her and Ethan.
She had spent nearly every day with him for seven months.
She knew which songs made him sleep.
She knew how he twisted the edge of his blanket when he was frightened.
She knew that he refused peas unless they were mixed with sweet potato.
Now she did not know whether she still had the right to stand beside him.
Victor looked back.
“Come inside.”
Lily hesitated.
“Mr. Blackwood, I don’t think—”
“He reached for you in the car.”
Victor’s voice was low.
“He needs every person he trusts.”
Lily entered.
Dr. Moreno examined Ethan’s shoulder, elbow, and wrist with careful hands.
The boy cried whenever she touched the upper part of his arm.
She ordered immediate X-rays.
She also ordered a full physical examination.
Victor’s eyes narrowed.
“A full examination?”
Dr. Moreno met his gaze.
“The housemaid said this was not the first incident.”
Victor’s jaw tightened.
“I want to know everything.”
“You may not like what I find.”
“I did not ask to like it.”
Dr. Moreno nodded.
A nurse carried Ethan toward imaging.
Victor walked beside the stretcher.
Lily tried to follow.
The room tilted around her.
She caught the edge of the counter.
Dr. Moreno noticed.
“You’re being examined too.”
“I’m fine.”
“You were kicked and hit your head.”
“Ethan needs you.”
“I have another physician for you.”
Lily shook her head.
“Please tell me about him first.”
Victor turned from the doorway.
“You’re going with the nurse.”
“I can wait.”
“That was not a request.”
Lily looked at him.
For a moment, his commanding tone reminded her that he was Victor Blackwood.
People on television called him ruthless.
Business magazines described him as a man who could destroy a company during breakfast and purchase its remains before lunch.
Yet his expression held no arrogance now.
It held fear.
“Let them examine you,” he said more quietly.
“Ethan will need you when he wakes up.”
Lily allowed the nurse to lead her away.
The physician found bruising along her abdomen, a mild concussion, and two cracked ribs.
There was no internal bleeding.
She was told she would heal with rest.
Lily almost laughed when she heard the word rest.
Nothing in the Blackwood mansion had allowed her to rest for months.
She returned to the private pediatric wing after midnight.
Victor stood alone outside Ethan’s room.
Rain streaked the windows behind him.
His black coat had been removed.
His white shirt was wrinkled and stained with Ethan’s tears.
“What did they say?” Lily asked.
Victor looked through the glass.
“A spiral fracture of the upper arm.”
Lily closed her eyes.
She had known it was serious.
Hearing the words still felt like a blow.
“Will it heal?”
“Yes.”
Victor did not sound relieved.
“Dr. Moreno said children his age usually recover well.”
“That’s good.”
“She also found bruises.”
Lily looked at him.
“Where?”
“His back.”
Victor’s voice hardened.
“Behind his left knee.”
Lily felt sick.
She had bathed Ethan the previous evening.
There had been no bruises then.
“She must have done it today.”
“Some are older.”
Lily stared through the glass.
Ethan slept beneath a light blanket.
His arm had been stabilized.
A stuffed elephant rested beside his head.
“How did I miss them?”
Victor turned toward her.
“You did not give them to him.”
“I should have seen them.”
“Serena made sure they were where his clothes covered them.”
Lily pressed a hand against her mouth.
Victor studied her face.
“When did you first become afraid of her?”
Lily did not answer immediately.
The truth had grown slowly.
It had begun with small things.
Serena correcting the way Ethan held his spoon.
Serena squeezing his hand when he reached toward a crystal vase.
Serena calling his crying manipulation.
Serena insisting that a Blackwood child should learn obedience before affection.
“At first I thought she was impatient,” Lily said.
“Then I thought she did not understand children.”
“And after that?”
“I realized she understood exactly how much pain she could cause without leaving visible evidence.”
Victor looked away.
The words struck him harder than Lily had expected.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I tried.”
“When?”
“Three weeks ago.”
Victor frowned.
“You sent a message asking to discuss Ethan’s routine.”
“Yes.”
“You said his schedule needed adjustment.”
“That wasn’t the message I wrote.”
Victor faced her fully.
Lily continued.
“I wrote that I was concerned about Serena’s behavior.”
“I never received that.”
“She came into the nursery ten minutes after I sent it.”
Lily remembered Serena standing in the doorway with Lily’s phone in her hand.
“She said household concerns went through her because she would soon be Ethan’s mother.”
“She had your phone?”
“She said I had left it downstairs.”
Victor’s eyes turned cold.
“I checked the message later.”
Lily swallowed.
“It had been deleted.”
“Why didn’t you send another?”
“Serena told me she knew where my father lived.”
Victor became still.
Lily rarely spoke about Thomas Carter.
Her father had suffered a stroke two years earlier.
He lived in an assisted-care facility outside Evanston.
Serena had mentioned the address casually while choosing flowers for the wedding.
She had even smiled.
“She said a man recovering from a stroke should not experience unnecessary stress,” Lily said.
“She made it sound like concern.”
“But you understood the threat.”
“Yes.”
Victor looked through the window again.
“What else did she threaten?”
“My nursing license.”
“You’re a nurse?”
“I was.”
Lily’s answer surprised him.
“I worked in pediatric trauma at County General.”
“What happened?”
“My older sister disappeared.”
Victor’s gaze returned to her.
“I stopped sleeping.”
“I missed shifts.”
“I made a medication documentation error.”
“No patient was harmed, but I resigned before the hospital could dismiss me.”
“Your sister’s name?”
“Claire Carter.”
Victor repeated it quietly.
The name appeared to disturb him.
“Do you know it?”
“I’m not sure.”
Before he could say more, Dr. Moreno entered the corridor holding a file.
Her face was different now.
More guarded.
Victor noticed immediately.
“What did you find?”
“I ordered bloodwork because Ethan was unusually drowsy after the initial examination.”
“He was exhausted.”
“That may explain part of it.”
Dr. Moreno lowered her voice.
“It does not explain the sedative in his bloodstream.”
Lily stared at her.
“What sedative?”
“A prescription medication often used before medical procedures.”
Victor’s expression became unreadable.
“Was it given here?”
“No.”
“How long ago?”
“Based on the concentration, sometime this afternoon.”
Lily remembered Ethan becoming sleepy after Serena had insisted on giving him juice.
“He drank from a blue cup.”
Dr. Moreno looked at her.
“When?”
“About an hour before Serena dragged him into the foyer.”
Victor’s hands closed into fists.
“Why would Serena sedate him?”
“To make him easier to control,” Lily whispered.
Dr. Moreno shook her head.
“Possibly.”
“However, that dosage could have affected his breathing.”
The corridor became silent.
Ethan had experienced four unexplained breathing episodes in the previous six weeks.
Each time, Serena had been in the mansion.
Each time, Victor had been traveling.
Lily looked at him.
He had reached the same conclusion.
“Those episodes,” he said.
Dr. Moreno’s face tightened.
“I want his previous blood samples retested.”
Victor took out his phone.
He called Marco.
“Search every room Serena has used.”
“Do not let anyone remove a bag, a bottle, or a piece of paper.”
Marco’s answer came immediately.
“The police are already at the mansion.”
“Good.”
Victor ended the call.
Dr. Moreno touched Lily’s arm.
“There is something else.”
Lily looked toward Ethan.
Dr. Moreno opened the file.
“The bruises behind his knee are older than the others.”
“How old?”
“Approximately two weeks.”
Lily remembered that day.
Victor had been in London.
Serena had dismissed the staff for a private afternoon.
She had ordered Lily to remain downstairs while she put Ethan to sleep herself.
When Lily returned to the nursery, Ethan had been strangely quiet.
His eyes had followed Serena across the room with a fear Lily had not understood.
“I left him with her,” Lily said.
Victor’s voice was firm.
“You did not know.”
“I should have known.”
“You were threatened.”
“So was he.”
Victor stepped closer.
“You protected him tonight.”
“Not soon enough.”
Ethan stirred behind the glass.
A soft cry escaped him.
Lily entered before anyone could stop her.
She sat beside the hospital bed.
Ethan opened his eyes.
His uninjured hand reached toward her.
“Li-Li.”
She bent until her forehead touched his fingers.
“I’m here.”
Victor remained in the doorway.
His face carried an emotion Lily could not read.
Dr. Moreno’s phone rang.
She answered.
Her expression changed after only a few words.
“Where?”
She listened.
“Do not touch it.”
Victor approached her.
“What happened?”
Dr. Moreno lowered the phone.
“The police searched Serena’s bathroom.”
“They found a bottle of the same sedative.”
Victor’s eyes darkened.
Dr. Moreno was not finished.
“It was hidden inside Lily’s overnight bag.”
Lily turned slowly.
“That bag was in my room.”
Victor looked at her.
“I know.”
Dr. Moreno continued.
“The bottle has fingerprints.”
Lily’s heart began to pound.
“Whose?”
Dr. Moreno looked directly at her.
“Yours.”
Across the city, Serena Montigue sat in the rear seat of a police vehicle.
Her hands were not restrained.
Her lawyer had already arrived.
She looked out at the rain and smiled.
The evidence was exactly where she had ordered it to be.
May you like
What she did not know was that someone else had watched her place it there.
And that person was finally ready to speak.
