Chapter 2 - THE MAN WHO CONTROLLED THE CAMERASDr. Hale's private clinic sat beneath an anonymous medical building downtown.
No signs.
No waiting room.
No curious strangers.
Victor believed secrecy meant safety.
Lily was beginning to understand that secrecy was exactly what had allowed the Blackwood family to rot.
Ethan was rushed into surgery.
Victor stood behind the glass, staring at the tiny body on the operating table.
His hands were covered in blood.
Not Ethan's.
His own.
He had gripped the wall so hard that his knuckles had split.
Lily sat nearby while Rosa Alvarez, the mansion's longtime housekeeper, held an ice pack against her ribs.
Rosa whispered, "You should have left months ago."
Lily looked at her.
"You knew?"
Rosa's eyes filled with fear.
"I saw bruises."
"Why didn't you tell him?"
Rosa looked toward the guards.
"Because the last maid who complained disappeared."
"Celia?"
Rosa nodded.
"They said she stole jewelry."
Lily remembered Serena saying that.
Rosa lowered her voice.
"Don't trust the cameras."
Lily frowned.
"The nursery cameras go dark whenever Serena enters alone."
"Who controls them?"
Rosa looked toward the elevator.
"Dante Russo."
Victor's security chief.
Eighteen years of loyalty.
Or so Victor believed.
Minutes later, Dante disappeared.
The elevator doors opened.
Empty.
The ceiling panel above the elevator had been removed.
Victor stared upward.
"Dante."
Nothing.
He turned to his men.
"Seal the building."
Then Julian Cross arrived with another problem.
Security footage.
It showed Lily entering Ethan's nursery.
It showed her covering the camera.
It showed her placing something beneath the mattress.
Then Serena entered.
The screen went black.
When it returned, Ethan was crying.
Lily was holding him.
Victor watched the footage twice.
"You said you were in the kitchen."
"I was."
"Rosa says you weren't."
Lily stared at Rosa.
Rosa began crying.
"I'm sorry."
Lily felt something inside her collapse.
Serena watched from the hallway.
She was smiling.
Victor turned toward Lily.
"Why?"
Lily shook her head.
"I don't know."
"Someone is manufacturing evidence."
"You think it's me."
"I don't know what to think."
Then Detective Owen Bell arrived.
He shook hands with Lucien Montigue as though they were old friends.
Lily noticed.
So did Victor.
Bell requested the recorder.
Julian refused.
The detective smiled.
"Miss Carter, are you afraid?"
Lily looked at Serena.
"Yes."
"Of whom?"
"Anyone who needs me to stop talking."
Bell laughed.
"That's dramatic."
Lily stared at him.
"So was a broken baby."
The smile disappeared.
That night, Lily was taken to a supposedly secure apartment.
She locked the door twice.
Checked the windows.
Then her phone rang.
Rosa.
"They have my daughter."
Lily stood.
"Who?"
"I don't know."
A man's voice replaced Rosa.
"Miss Carter."
Lily recognized him.
The voice from the nursery recording.
"You should have let the baby cry."
The line went dead.
Then the lights went out.
May you like
A gunshot shattered the window.
And Lily realized the safe house had never been safe.
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