Chapter 7 - CLARA’S LAST WARNING
Clara Blackwood had been dead for fourteen months.
Victor had spent every one of those months believing rain killed her.
Rain.
A slick highway.
A truck that drifted into her lane.
A guardrail.
Metal.
Fire.
That was the story.
It had been simple enough to survive.
Victor had blamed weather because weather could not apologize.
Weather could not be punished.
Weather did not smile at his dinner table afterward.
Marco returned to the hospital with Clara’s complete file shortly after midnight.
Police records.
Insurance photographs.
Vehicle inspection.
Private security reports.
Victor sat alone in a conference room while Lily remained with Ethan.
Detective Grant stood nearby.
Nathan Hale had been temporarily separated from the others until police verified his movements.
Victor opened the file.
The first photograph almost stopped him.
Clara’s Mercedes.
Crushed against concrete.
He had not looked at those images since the week she died.
“Who investigated the vehicle?” Grant asked.
Victor scanned the report.
“Adrian.”
“Anyone independent?”
“The insurance company.”
“Did they inspect mechanical failure?”
Victor turned pages.
“Brake lines were damaged in the collision.”
Grant looked at him.
“That doesn’t answer my question.”
Victor knew.
Marco entered carrying a tablet.
“I found something strange.”
Victor looked up.
“The security report from Clara’s last day is missing two hours.”
“What hours?”
“Three to five in the afternoon.”
“She died at six-twenty.”
“Yes.”
Victor’s jaw tightened.
“Who edited the log?”
Marco hesitated.
“Adrian’s credentials.”
Grant stepped closer.
“Was Serena in your life then?”
Victor shook his head.
“Not officially.”
“Meaning?”
“I met her at a foundation event five weeks before Clara died.”
Lily appeared in the doorway.
Victor looked at her.
“You should be resting.”
“I remembered something.”
“What?”
Lily entered slowly.
“Clara’s music box.”
Victor’s eyes sharpened.
“What about it?”
“When I found the hidden camera, there was something scratched into the wood underneath.”
“What?”
“I thought it was damage.”
She looked at him.
“But now I think it was letters.”
Victor waited.
“A.C.”
Adrian Cole.
Marco swore under his breath.
Victor stood.
They returned to Ethan’s room.
The music box had already been collected from the mansion as evidence.
Grant arranged for it to be brought to the hospital.
Two hours later it sat inside a clear evidence bag.
A handmade wooden box.
Tiny carved roses.
Clara had bought it in Vermont during their honeymoon.
Victor remembered her laughing when the melody played too slowly.
Grant photographed the bottom.
There it was.
Two faint letters scratched into the wood.
A.C.
And underneath them:
CAR.
Victor stopped breathing.
“Clara knew.”
Lily whispered, “Maybe she was trying to leave you a warning.”
Grant examined the box.
“There may be more.”
A technician carefully opened the base.
Inside the music mechanism they found a folded strip of paper.
Victor’s hands shook as Grant unfolded it.
Clara’s handwriting.
Victor recognized it instantly.
Three short lines.
If something happens to me, do not trust Adrian.
Check my car.
Protect Ethan.
Victor sat down.
Nobody spoke.
Lily covered her mouth.
Marco turned away.
Detective Grant carefully placed the note inside an evidence sleeve.
Victor stared at the wall.
For fourteen months he had mourned Clara.
For fourteen months Adrian had stood beside him pretending to mourn too.
Victor remembered the funeral.
Adrian’s hand on his shoulder.
You need to stay strong for Ethan.
Victor’s stomach twisted.
Lily approached slowly.
“Victor.”
He didn’t look at her.
“She knew.”
“Yes.”
“And I didn’t.”
“You didn’t have the note.”
“I had her.”
Lily stopped.
Victor’s voice cracked.
“She told me Adrian was making her uncomfortable two weeks before she died.”
Lily sat beside him.
“What did you say?”
“I said Adrian was family.”
Victor laughed once.
A broken sound.
“I told my wife she was imagining things.”
Lily said nothing.
There was nothing comforting enough to say.
Grant’s phone rang.
She answered.
Then looked at Victor.
“We found Nathan’s wife.”
Victor stood.
“Is she alive?”
“Yes. She was locked inside a storage room at their Lake Forest house.”
Nathan had been telling the truth.
Serena and Adrian had used his home without permission.
“Any sign of them?”
“No.”
“Then where are they?”
“We found a bloodstain.”
Victor’s eyes narrowed.
“Whose?”
“Unknown.”
Grant hesitated.
“And Adrian’s phone.”
That surprised everyone.
“Why leave it?”
“Maybe he didn’t.”
Victor understood.
“They’re turning on each other.”
Grant nodded.
Police searched Adrian’s phone.
The messages were devastating.
Serena and Adrian had been involved before Victor ever met her.
Serena’s appearance at the foundation gala had not been chance.
Adrian had arranged it.
The plan had begun while Clara was still alive.
At first the messages seemed focused on money.
Access.
Corporate records.
Victor’s legitimate holdings.
But then investigators found older deleted messages.
Recovered fragments.
C doesn’t trust me.
She saw the garage invoice.
Handle it before she tells V.
Victor stared at the screen.
“What garage invoice?”
Marco searched old financial records.
Twenty minutes later he found a payment made through one of Adrian’s shell consulting companies to a mechanic in Cicero.
The payment occurred three days before Clara died.
The mechanic had disappeared two weeks later.
Grant immediately sent officers to locate him.
Victor leaned against the wall.
Everything inside him felt hollow.
Lily stayed nearby.
Not touching him.
Just there.
Then Ethan woke.
His small cry came from the crib.
Victor immediately crossed the room.
“Hey.”
Ethan looked uncomfortable.
His injured arm was supported carefully.
He saw Lily.
“Li-Li.”
Lily smiled through tears.
“I’m here, sweetheart.”
Victor lifted Ethan carefully with the nurse’s permission.
The baby leaned against his chest.
For several seconds the room became quiet.
No Serena.
No Adrian.
No conspiracy.
Just a father holding his son.
Ethan reached toward Lily.
She came closer.
His fingers touched her cheek.
Then Ethan did something neither adult expected.
He took Victor’s hand.
Then Lily’s.
And pressed them together against his blanket.
Lily laughed softly.
Victor looked at her.
Something unspoken passed between them.
Not romance.
Not yet.
Something more important.
Trust.
The thing Victor had given too easily to people who betrayed him.
And withheld from the woman who had earned it.
Detective Grant appeared at the doorway.
“We found Adrian.”
Victor stood.
“Where?”
“In a motel outside Joliet.”
“Serena?”
“No.”
“Is he alive?”
Grant’s expression changed.
“Barely.”
Victor handed Ethan gently to Lily.
“What happened?”
“Gunshot wound.”
Lily gasped.
“Did Serena shoot him?”
“We don’t know.”
Grant lowered her voice.
“But he was conscious long enough to say one thing before surgery.”
Victor stared at her.
“What?”
Grant looked directly into his eyes.
“He said Serena isn’t running.”
May you like
Victor frowned.
“She’s coming back here.”
