Chapter 2 - THE FOOTSTEPS IN THE SHADOWS
Lily made it another six inches across the marble before Serena’s heel pressed harder into her side.
“Didn’t you hear me?”
Lily gasped.
Her fingers stretched toward Ethan.
The baby had stopped screaming.
That terrified her more than the screaming had.
His tiny chest rose in shallow, uneven movements. Tears covered his cheeks, but only weak whimpers escaped his lips now. His right arm remained strangely still against the floor.
“Ethan,” Lily whispered.
Serena grabbed a fistful of Lily’s hair.
“I warned you.”
Then a man’s voice came from the darkness behind her.
“Take your hand off her.”
Serena froze.
The entire mansion seemed to freeze with her.
Lily’s heart stopped for one impossible second.
Serena slowly released her hair.
At the far end of the foyer, beyond the massive staircase, Victor Blackwood stepped from the shadowed hallway.
He wasn’t supposed to be home.
His meeting downtown had been scheduled until midnight.
It was barely six-thirty.
Victor still wore the charcoal suit he had left in that morning. Rain darkened the shoulders of his coat. Two men stood several steps behind him, but neither moved.
They didn’t need to.
Victor’s face was enough.
Thirty-nine years old.
Tall.
Controlled.
Terrifyingly quiet.
Chicago newspapers called him a businessman.
Federal investigators used less flattering words.
Men in expensive suits lowered their voices when Victor Blackwood entered restaurants.
Yet right now, he wasn’t looking at Serena.
He was looking at his son.
“Ethan?”
The single word cracked.
Victor crossed the foyer so quickly Lily barely saw him move.
He dropped to his knees beside the little boy.
“Don’t pick him up,” Lily gasped immediately. “His arm. Something’s wrong with his arm.”
Victor stopped.
His hands hovered over Ethan.
For perhaps the first time in years, Victor Blackwood looked completely helpless.
Ethan’s eyelids fluttered.
“Daddy’s here,” Victor whispered.
The baby made a faint sound.
Victor’s head snapped toward Serena.
“What happened?”
Serena’s face transformed.
The cold woman who had kicked Lily disappeared.
In her place stood a trembling fiancée with glossy eyes and shaking hands.
“Victor, thank God.”
She rushed toward him.
He lifted one hand.
“Stay there.”
Serena stopped.
Victor looked at Lily.
She was curled on the floor, one arm wrapped around her abdomen.
“What happened?”
Lily opened her mouth.
Nothing came out.
Serena answered for her.
“Lily lost her temper.”
Lily stared at her.
Serena’s voice broke convincingly.
“She was frustrated because Ethan wouldn’t stop crying. I came downstairs and saw her dragging him. I tried to stop her. She attacked me.”
Victor said nothing.
“I think she hurt his arm,” Serena continued. “Victor, I didn’t know what to do. I was trying to protect him.”
Lily could hardly believe what she was hearing.
“You—”
Pain cut through her stomach.
She folded forward.
Victor’s eyes moved between them.
Serena pointed at Lily.
“She’s unstable. I told you weeks ago there was something wrong with her.”
Lily’s fear became rage.
“You dragged him across the floor.”
“Stop lying!”
“You hurt him!”
“She’s hysterical, Victor.”
“ENOUGH.”
Victor didn’t shout often.
He didn’t need to.
The word thundered through the foyer.
Everyone became silent.
Victor turned toward one of the men standing behind him.
“Marco.”
The broad-shouldered security chief stepped forward.
“Call an ambulance. Now.”
“Already done.”
“Get Dr. Bennett on the phone.”
Marco nodded.
Victor removed his coat and carefully slid it beneath Ethan without moving the injured arm.
The baby’s fingers weakly caught the edge of his father’s sleeve.
Victor’s jaw tightened.
“Daddy,” Ethan breathed.
It was barely recognizable.
But Victor heard it.
Something inside his expression shattered.
He lowered his forehead toward Ethan’s.
“I’m here.”
Lily watched tears gather in her own eyes.
She had never seen Victor cry.
He didn’t cry now.
But he came close.
Serena attempted another step.
“Victor, please let me explain—”
“Did I tell you to move?”
She stopped again.
There was something different in his voice now.
Not anger.
Suspicion.
Victor looked down at Ethan’s arm.
Then at Serena.
Then at Lily’s bare feet.
Then at the marks on Lily’s neck where Serena had grabbed her.
His eyes traveled to the place on the marble where Lily had fallen.
One of Serena’s earrings lay there.
A diamond teardrop.
Victor stared at it.
Serena noticed.
“I dropped it when she attacked me.”
Victor looked toward the security cameras above the foyer.
“Marco.”
“Yes?”
“Pull every camera recording from the last hour.”
For the first time, Serena’s expression changed.
Only slightly.
But Lily saw it.
Fear.
Marco turned toward the security room.
Serena spoke too quickly.
“The foyer camera hasn’t been working.”
Marco stopped.
Victor slowly turned his head.
“How do you know that?”
Serena blinked.
“I—because I noticed the light was off.”
“The indicator light is infrared.”
Silence.
“You can’t see it in daylight,” Victor continued.
Serena’s face drained of color.
Lily forgot the pain for a moment.
Victor stood.
He moved toward Serena slowly.
“Why do you know my foyer camera isn’t recording?”
Serena swallowed.
“Victor, you’re misunderstanding.”
“Then help me understand.”
“I asked one of the staff.”
“Who?”
Serena’s mouth opened.
No answer came.
Sirens sounded beyond the mansion gates.
Victor looked toward Marco.
“No one leaves the property.”
Serena stiffened.
“Excuse me?”
“No cars. No staff. No guests. Nobody.”
“You cannot imprison me here.”
“I’m preserving a scene involving my injured fourteen-month-old son.”
Serena stared at him.
For the first time, she seemed to realize charm would not save her.
Paramedics rushed through the front doors moments later.
Victor moved aside reluctantly.
They examined Ethan.
One paramedic’s expression tightened when he saw the arm.
“Possible fracture or dislocation. We need imaging.”
Victor looked at Lily.
“She goes too.”
Lily shook her head.
“I’m fine.”
“You’re not.”
“I can go later. Stay with Ethan.”
Victor stared at her for a long moment.
Then the paramedic examining Lily gently pressed her abdomen.
She cried out.
“Possible internal injury,” he said. “She absolutely comes.”
Serena scoffed.
“She kicked me first.”
Victor’s eyes shifted toward her.
Lily stared at Serena in disbelief.
“She kicked me while I was crawling toward Ethan.”
“Liar.”
“I watched it happen.”
The voice came from the second floor.
Everyone looked up.
A young housemaid named Rosa stood at the balcony railing.
Her face was pale.
Her hands shook so violently she had to grip the wood.
Serena stared at her.
Rosa looked ready to faint.
Victor spoke gently.
“Come downstairs.”
Rosa hesitated.
Serena’s eyes hardened.
“Rosa, think very carefully about what you’re saying.”
Victor’s entire body went still.
He turned toward Serena.
“That sounded like a threat.”
“It wasn’t.”
“Then don’t speak to her again.”
Rosa descended slowly.
By the time she reached the foyer, tears were streaming down her face.
“I saw Miss Montigue pull Ethan out of the playroom,” she whispered. “He didn’t want to go. He kept reaching for Lily.”
Serena laughed sharply.
“She’s covering for her friend.”
Rosa flinched.
Victor noticed.
“What else?”
Rosa looked at Serena.
Then at Victor.
“She told us we’d lose our jobs if we interfered.”
Victor’s face became unreadable.
“What do you mean, ‘us’?”
Rosa began crying harder.
“She’s been doing things when you’re gone.”
Lily closed her eyes.
There it was.
The truth she had been too terrified to say.
Victor stared at Lily.
“How long?”
Lily couldn’t answer.
Not yet.
Not with Serena standing there.
Victor seemed to understand.
He walked toward Serena, removed the engagement ring from her left hand with a single controlled motion, and placed it on the marble table.
Serena stared at the ring.
“What are you doing?”
Victor looked at his son being lifted onto a stretcher.
Then at Lily.
Then back at the woman he had planned to marry in six weeks.
“I’m making sure I never again confuse a beautiful performance with character.”
“Victor—”
He walked away.
Serena rushed after him.
“Victor!”
He stopped beside the ambulance doors.
When he looked back, the expression on his face made her halt.
“If my son’s injury happened the way Lily says it happened, an engagement ring will be the smallest thing you lose tonight.”
Then he climbed into the ambulance beside Ethan.
Lily was placed in the second ambulance.
As the doors closed, she saw Serena standing alone beneath the chandelier.
For six months, Lily had believed Serena Montigue was untouchable.
But Serena was no longer smiling.
She was staring toward the security room.
And Lily suddenly remembered something that made her blood turn cold.
Three nights earlier, Serena had entered that room at 2:13 in the morning.
May you like
Lily knew because she had followed her.
And she knew exactly what Serena had taken.
