Chapter 1 - THE FOOTSTEPS BEHIND HER “Take your hand off my son.”
Victor Blackwood spoke so quietly that the entire marble foyer seemed to stop breathing.
Serena Montigue froze.
One hand was still twisted tightly into the front of baby Ethan’s shirt.
Three feet away, Lily Hart lay on the cold marble floor, one arm wrapped around her ribs and the other stretched toward the child she had spent the last year protecting.
Ethan was crying.
Not the ordinary cry of a tired baby.
It was the terrified, broken cry of a child who had learned that someone’s footsteps meant pain.
Victor stood at the far end of the foyer.
His black travel coat was still dusted with road salt from the drive back from New York. He had arrived two hours earlier than expected, without calling Serena, without informing the household staff, without bringing the usual convoy of security vehicles.
He had wanted to surprise his fiancée.
Instead, he had walked into a nightmare.
Serena released Ethan.
“Victor…”
Her expression changed instantly.
Tears appeared.
Her voice trembled.
“Thank God you're here. Lily attacked me. I was trying to protect Ethan.”
Lily stared at her in disbelief.
“That's a lie.”
Victor didn't answer.
His eyes were fixed on his son.
Ethan's tiny wrist was red.
One sock was missing.
His left arm hung awkwardly against his body.
When Victor reached toward him, Ethan screamed harder.
Victor stopped.
That frightened him more than anything.
His son was afraid of being touched.
By his own father.
Victor slowly lowered his hand.
He had spent twenty years building a reputation that made men twice his size step aside when he entered a room.
He had negotiated with criminals, politicians, billionaires and killers.
None of them had ever made him feel as helpless as the sound of his son's crying.
“Marco.”
His head of security appeared instantly.
“Lock the gates. Call an ambulance. Call the police.”
Serena's face went pale.
“The police?”
Victor finally looked at her.
“A child has been injured.”
He walked toward Ethan.
“Nobody leaves this house.”
Lily tried to stand.
Pain forced her back down.
Victor noticed the bruising beneath her uniform.
“What happened to you?”
Serena answered immediately.
“She attacked me.”
Lily slowly opened her fist.
Inside was a tiny black button.
A miniature red light blinked once.
“I recorded everything,” she whispered.
Victor stared at the device.
Then at Serena.
For the first time that night, Serena's tears disappeared.
And Victor realized something.
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She wasn't afraid of the police.
She was afraid of what the recording might reveal.
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