Chapter 9 - Amelia’s Last Witness
Victor moved in front of Lily and Claire.
Mercer kept her weapon raised.
“Do not move.”
Lily stared at the detective.
“You helped them.”
“No.”
Mercer’s eyes remained focused on the corridor behind Victor.
“I am pointing past you.”
Victor turned slightly.
A shadow moved near the open door.
Mercer fired.
Peter Lang fell against the wall.
A gun slid from his hand.
Marco appeared behind him with his injured shoulder wrapped beneath a tactical vest.
He kicked the weapon away.
Peter remained conscious.
He smiled at Victor from the floor.
“You always needed someone else to see the danger for you.”
Mercer ordered officers to restrain him.
Peter did not resist.
“Where is Ethan?” Victor demanded.
Peter laughed.
“You should ask your fiancée.”
Victor grabbed his coat.
Mercer pulled him away.
“Do not give him a reason to claim brutality.”
“He helped break my son’s arm.”
“Then let us make certain he never walks free.”
Peter’s smile faded when officers led him away.
Claire struggled to stand.
Lily supported her.
“You need a hospital.”
“No.”
Claire’s voice was weak.
“They have people there.”
“Serena escaped from the hospital.”
“Then nowhere is safe.”
Victor stepped closer.
“Tell me where Ethan is.”
Claire closed her eyes.
“There is an exit beneath the old yacht club.”
“Julian kept a vehicle there.”
Mercer transmitted the location.
Officers moved through the tunnel.
The vehicle was found abandoned fifteen minutes later.
Ethan was not inside.
Serena had taken him somewhere else.
Claire was transported under armed guard to a secure medical facility owned by the federal government.
Deputy Commissioner Wallace attempted to interfere.
Mercer contacted federal investigators instead.
By sunrise, the case had moved beyond local control.
Peter Lang requested immunity.
He offered documents connecting Julian, Serena, and several Blackwood executives to financial crimes.
He refused to discuss Amelia’s death without a signed agreement.
Victor wanted him charged immediately.
Mercer wanted him talking.
Lily wanted Claire protected.
Claire wanted to see their father.
Thomas Carter was moved from his assisted-care facility before anyone connected to the Montigue Foundation could reach him.
Doctors found traces of a rare toxin in stored blood samples.
The toxin could cause neurological weakness resembling a stroke.
Thomas had been receiving small doses for nearly two years.
The facility nurse responsible for his medication had disappeared overnight.
When Lily entered his new hospital room, Thomas opened his eyes.
For the first time in months, they seemed clear.
“Claire.”
His voice was barely audible.
“She’s alive.”
Lily sat beside him.
“She’s safe.”
Thomas closed his eyes.
Tears moved into his hair.
“I failed her.”
“No.”
“I told her to trust Charles Blackwood.”
Lily’s hand became still.
“You knew Charles?”
Thomas looked toward Victor, who stood near the doorway.
“I worked for him.”
Victor stepped inside.
“As what?”
“An investigator.”
Thomas breathed carefully between words.
“Before Lily was born.”
“I found theft inside the shipping division.”
“Julian’s first theft.”
Victor stared.
“My father never mentioned you.”
“He paid me to disappear.”
“Why?”
“Because I found proof that Julian was not his brother’s son.”
Victor’s expression changed.
Julian had been raised as Charles’s younger half-brother.
If his parentage was false, his claim to Blackwood shares could collapse.
“Who was his father?” Victor asked.
Thomas shook his head.
“I never learned the name.”
“Charles buried the report.”
“He said exposing it would destroy his mother.”
“What does this have to do with Amelia?”
“Julian discovered the report still existed.”
“He believed Claire had it.”
“Did she?”
“No.”
Thomas looked at Lily.
“Amelia did.”
Victor felt the room narrow around him.
“My wife found your investigation?”
“Claire gave it to her.”
“She hoped Amelia would help protect Sophie.”
Victor walked toward the window.
Amelia had carried secrets from everyone.
She had hidden Claire’s surrogacy.
She had hidden the ledger.
She had hidden an investigation capable of removing Julian from the family.
She had died before telling Victor any of it.
Thomas continued.
“Amelia planned to meet federal agents.”
“Her car was forced from the road before she arrived.”
“Who ordered it?”
Thomas looked toward the door.
“Serena.”
Lily stared.
“Serena did not know Victor then.”
“She knew Julian.”
Thomas’s voice grew weaker.
“She was raised to protect him.”
“By whom?” Victor asked.
“Her mother.”
“Evelyn Montigue worked in the Blackwood household.”
“She and Julian were lovers.”
Victor understood before Thomas finished.
“Julian is Serena’s father.”
Thomas nodded.
The engagement had never merely been a financial alliance.
Serena was Julian’s daughter.
She had attempted to marry Victor while hiding their blood relationship as cousins.
Julian intended to place his own child inside Victor’s household, control Ethan’s trust, and eventually reclaim the Blackwood company.
Lily’s disgust was visible.
“Did Serena know?”
“Since she was seventeen.”
Thomas answered.
“She believed the Blackwoods stole Julian’s birthright.”
Victor’s voice hardened.
“He had no birthright.”
“He believed he did.”
Thomas closed his eyes.
“The truth did not matter.”
“It rarely does to people who think revenge is inheritance.”
Claire entered in a wheelchair.
A federal nurse accompanied her.
Thomas opened his eyes again.
Father and daughter looked at each other across eighteen months of silence.
Claire began crying.
Thomas reached toward her.
“I thought you were dead.”
“They wanted everyone to think that.”
She took his hand.
“Peter moved me between clinics.”
“Why did he keep you alive?” Lily asked.
“Because Julian needed me to sign documents about Ethan’s birth.”
Claire looked at Victor.
“He wanted me to state that Amelia stole my child.”
“He wanted the trust invalidated.”
“You refused.”
“Yes.”
“Then Serena began making Ethan sick.”
Claire nodded.
“If they could make Victor appear neglectful and Ethan medically unstable, Serena could obtain guardianship.”
“After the marriage, she planned to have Victor declared incompetent.”
Victor’s expression became cold.
“And after that?”
Claire looked toward Lily.
“She planned to arrange an accident.”
Lily felt the horror settle into place.
Serena had intended to remove Victor and control Ethan.
Julian would then control Serena.
The company would belong to them.
“What changed?” Mercer asked.
“Why hurt Ethan before the wedding?”
Claire’s answer came quietly.
“Victor delayed signing the new estate papers.”
“Julian became impatient.”
“Serena was supposed to create a minor injury.”
“One that could be blamed on Lily.”
“Tonight was meant to begin the custody case.”
Lily remembered Serena dragging Ethan.
The broken arm had not been uncontrolled anger.
It had been evidence being manufactured.
The planted sedative.
The disabled camera.
The witnesses threatened into silence.
The entire scene had been designed to destroy Lily and prove Victor’s household unsafe.
The recorder ruined it.
“Where would Serena take Ethan?” Victor asked.
Claire shook her head.
“She has several safe locations.”
“Julian owns properties under false names.”
Thomas squeezed Claire’s hand.
“The diary.”
Claire looked at him.
“What diary?”
“Amelia kept one.”
“She recorded every place Julian used.”
Victor remembered the journal his wife carried during the final months of her life.
He had searched for it after the accident.
It was never found.
“Where is it?” he asked.
Thomas looked toward him.
“Inside the Blackwood chapel.”
The private chapel stood on the oldest part of the family estate.
No one had entered it since Amelia’s funeral.
Victor, Lily, Marco, and Mercer traveled there with federal agents.
Behind Amelia’s memorial plaque, they found a metal box.
Inside lay her diary.
The first pages contained ordinary details about Ethan’s expected birth.
The final section changed.
Amelia described Claire’s fear.
She described Serena’s secret relationship to Julian.
She described Charles refusing to expose his brother.
The last complete entry was dated the night before the crash.
Julian knows where the original report is.
Charles believes silence will protect Victor.
He is wrong.
Silence only protects the person willing to do the worst thing next.
The following page had been torn out.
Marco examined the binding.
“It was removed recently.”
Victor looked toward the chapel doors.
Only family members possessed keys.
A sound came from beneath the altar.
Lily knelt.
A phone had been taped to the wood.
It began ringing.
Victor answered.
Serena’s voice filled the chapel.
“Did you enjoy Amelia’s diary?”
“Where is Ethan?”
“He is safer with me than he ever was with you.”
“You broke his arm.”
“That was an unfortunate escalation.”
Victor’s face became deadly still.
“Let me speak to him.”
“You will.”
“After you bring Sophie to me.”
Lily stepped closer.
“No.”
Serena heard her.
“You were always the difficult variable, Lily.”
“What do you want with Sophie?”
“My father needs proof that Claire’s daughter is alive.”
“He plans to trade her legal claim for control of Ethan’s trust.”
“You are not getting either child.”
Serena laughed softly.
“You misunderstand.”
“I already have someone willing to exchange Sophie.”
The chapel doors opened.
Charles Blackwood entered alone.
He carried the torn page from Amelia’s diary.
Victor stared at him.
“What did you do?”
Charles looked toward the phone.
“I made the arrangement.”
Serena spoke.
“Bring Sophie to the lake house by midnight.”
“Do that, and Victor gets his son.”
The line disconnected.
Victor approached his father.
“You offered a child to them.”
Charles did not move.
“I offered a false promise.”
“They believe Sophie will be there.”
Victor took the torn diary page from him.
The writing was Amelia’s.
It contained one address.
Beneath it, she had written a warning.
If Charles betrays me, Victor must learn what his father did in 1998.
Victor looked up.
“What happened in 1998?”
Charles’s face revealed fear for the first time.
Before he could answer, Marco received an emergency call.
The federal officers guarding Sophie had been attacked.
The child had disappeared.
May you like
Security footage showed the person carrying her away.
It was Claire Carter.
