Chapter 8 - My Sister's Last SecretNathan summoned every member of his security team to the mansion's underground command room.
I wasn't invited.
I went anyway.
If there was one thing the past three days had taught me, it was that the truth never arrived when I waited politely for it.
Calder opened his mouth when he saw me enter.
Nathan raised one hand.
“Let her stay.”
The room fell silent.
A wall-sized screen displayed the fraudulent paternity report. Beside it were photographs of Thomas Blackwood, Victor, Daniel, and the hospital where Lily had been born.
Nathan stood at the head of the table.
“Someone altered a medical record, falsified a paternity result, and threatened an infant. That's not a family dispute. That's an organized operation.”
He looked at Calder.
“Tell them what we know.”
Calder activated the next screen.
“Thomas disappeared fifteen years ago. Victor continued managing the public business. Daniel allegedly died five years ago, but evidence suggests he survived. Nine months ago, someone attempted to kill Nathan at his private estate. On February fourteenth, an unidentified man entered St. Catherine's Hospital and accessed Lily's medical file.”
The screen changed.
A photograph of Emily appeared.
“Two months ago, Grace's sister disappeared. We have reason to believe she was taken by someone connected to Thomas.”
Nathan turned toward the assembled guards.
“I want every lead traced. Every payment, every phone call, every contact made by Thomas or Victor in the last year. I want answers before sunset.”
The men dispersed.
I remained beside the door, watching the photographs.
Something about Emily's image bothered me.
Not the bruises.
Not the fear in her expression.
The necklace she wore.
It was a thin silver chain with a small heart-shaped pendant.
Our mother had given us matching pendants when we were children. Mine had been lost years ago, but Emily had kept hers even after our mother died.
In the video, the pendant was open.
I could see a tiny piece of paper tucked inside it.
My heart began to race.
“Stop the video.”
Calder looked at me.
“What?”
“Can you enlarge the pendant?”
He adjusted the footage.
The image sharpened.
Inside the pendant was a folded strip of paper.
I pointed at it.
“Emily is hiding something.”
Nathan stepped beside me.
“Can you retrieve the original footage?”
Calder nodded.
Within minutes, he had extracted the video and enhanced the image.
The paper contained four handwritten words.
WEST PIER. MIDNIGHT. ALONE.
Nathan swore quietly.
“It's a meeting location,” I said.
“Or a trap,” he replied.
“It could be the only way to find her.”
Nathan turned to Calder.
“Find every property near the west pier. Cross-reference the location with known Blackwood holdings and recent surveillance reports.”
The security chief nodded.
I reached for the tablet.
“There's something else.”
Nathan watched me zoom in on Emily's face.
Her eyes were swollen, but she was looking slightly to her left.
At someone standing outside the camera's frame.
She wasn't afraid of the person behind the camera.
She was afraid of the person beside her.
“Whoever is holding Emily isn't the one giving the orders,” I whispered. “She's looking at someone else.”
Nathan studied the image.
“Victor?”
“Maybe.”
Calder shook his head.
“Victor wouldn't risk being filmed.”
“Then who?”
Nathan stared at the screen.
And for the first time, I saw him consider an answer he didn't want to believe.
“Daniel.”
The name hung in the air.
I thought of Emily's warning.
The man you're trusting isn't the one you should fear.
If Daniel was alive, he might be helping Thomas.
Or he might be trying to stop him.
I looked at Nathan.
“Did you and Daniel ever fight over anything important?”
Nathan gave a bitter laugh.
“We fought over almost everything. Women, money, the business. But we never fought over family.”
“What about your father?”
His expression darkened.
“Daniel worshipped him when we were boys. I learned early that Thomas's love always came with a price. Daniel spent years trying to earn it.”
I imagined two brothers growing up beneath the shadow of a man who treated affection like a reward.
“What happened before Daniel died?”
Nathan was silent for a long time.
Then he answered.
“The last time I spoke to him, he told me he had discovered something about our father. He said I needed to meet him at the family estate. I refused because I was dealing with a shipment that had been intercepted by the authorities.”
He looked at the photograph of Daniel.
“The next morning, I was told his car had exploded.”
“Did you go to identify the body?”
“No. Thomas's men brought the coffin to the funeral home and insisted the damage made identification impossible. They told me Daniel had left instructions for a closed-casket burial.”
I stared at him.
“And you accepted that?”
Nathan's jaw tightened.
“I was twenty-seven years old, Grace. I'd just lost the only brother I had. I was surrounded by people who insisted the details were settled, and I was too angry to imagine they might all be lying.”
He turned toward the window.
“If Daniel is alive, I need to know why he let me mourn him.”
I touched his arm.
“Maybe he had no choice.”
Nathan looked down at my hand.
For a moment, neither of us spoke.
Then his phone vibrated.
An incoming message appeared from an unknown number.
MIDNIGHT. WEST PIER. BRING THE GIRL.
A second message followed.
IF YOU BRING AN ARMY, YOUR SISTER DIES.
I looked at Nathan.
“I'm going.”
“No.”
“She's my sister.”
“And Lily is your daughter.”
“I won't leave Emily to die.”
“You won't.”
He took the phone from my hand.
“We'll get her out.”
“By doing what? Sending your men? The message said—”
“I read it.”
“Then you know they expect us to come.”
Nathan stepped closer.
“Grace, the person who sent this message knows you will do anything to save your sister. That's the weakness they're counting on.”
I swallowed.
“Then let's stop being predictable.”
He studied me.
For several seconds, he said nothing.
Then a slow, dangerous smile touched his mouth.
“Now you're thinking like a Blackwood.”
I hated how much those words affected me.
I hated even more that I wanted them to mean something.
Nathan called Calder and gave him a series of instructions. The team began preparing decoy vehicles, remote cameras, and a discreet extraction route.
But I wasn't listening anymore.
I was staring at the photograph of Emily.
At the pendant around her neck.
At the tiny strip of paper hidden inside it.
There was something about the handwriting.
I had seen it before.
Not in Emily's messages.
Not in our mother's letters.
Somewhere else.
I searched my memory until my stomach tightened.
The threatening note Victor had sent me during my pregnancy.
The one that warned me to disappear.
The handwriting was identical.
Victor had been in contact with Emily.
He had also known about Lily's birth.
I approached Nathan.
“I know who sent the threat.”
He turned.
“Who?”
“Victor.”
Nathan's face became unreadable.
“Are you certain?”
“I've seen his handwriting.”
He nodded once.
“Then we'll make him believe we're following his instructions.”
He reached for his jacket.
“Tonight, Victor Blackwood learns what happens when he threatens my family.”
But as we prepared to leave, Calder hurried into the room holding a printed document.
“Sir, we found something in Thomas's old financial records.”
Nathan took it.
His eyes moved over the page.
Then he looked at me.
“Grace, your sister didn't disappear two months ago.”
My heart stopped.
“What?”
Calder placed another photograph on the table.
It showed Emily standing outside Nathan's private estate.
The date in the corner was from nine months earlier.
The night Nathan had been shot.
The night Lily was conceived.
May you like
And written on the back, in Thomas Blackwood's handwriting, was a single sentence.
SHE KNOWS WHICH SON SURVIVED.
Related Stories
