Chapter 3 - The Dead Man's BargainVictor stepped toward them.
“Release my son.”
His father smiled.
“You always were impatient.”
“Why are you doing this?”
“Because your wife was supposed to tell you the truth.”
Victor’s eyes narrowed.
“What truth?”
His father looked at Lily.
“She knows.”
Lily shook her head.
“No. I don’t.”
Serena laughed.
“You still pretend?”
Victor turned toward Lily.
“What is he talking about?”
“I genuinely don’t know.”
His father sighed.
“Then perhaps you should ask her why Evelyn left her a fortune.”
Victor froze.
“What?”
Lily looked equally stunned.
“I never received anything.”
His father pulled a document from his coat.
“Evelyn changed her will three days before her death.”
Victor stared.
“Three days?”
“She left Lily everything.”
Serena smiled.
“She planned to replace you.”
Victor looked at Lily.
“Is that true?”
“No.”
“You knew Evelyn?”
Lily hesitated.
“A little.”
Serena laughed.
“A little?”
Victor’s eyes sharpened.
Lily finally whispered:
“Evelyn helped me once.”
“When?”
“Before I worked here.”
His father interrupted.
“She was more than your employer, Lily.”
He looked almost amused.
“She was your mother’s best friend.”
Lily went pale.
“What?”
Victor’s expression changed.
His father continued.
“Your mother worked for the family for years. She discovered what Evelyn discovered.”
“What?”
“The existence of the Black Trust.”
Victor understood.
His mother’s private trust.
The one nobody had been able to access.
The trust that would activate when Ethan turned eighteen.
His father smiled.
“That trust controls half the family fortune.”
Serena stepped closer to Ethan.
“And if Ethan dies before the activation date, Victor loses the estate.”
Victor’s voice dropped.
“So that’s what this is about.”
His father nodded.
“Money is only part of it.”
“Then what is the rest?”
“The bloodline.”
Victor stared.
His father handed him an old medical document.
Victor read it.
His face drained.
Blood type.
Genetic markers.
A DNA test.
The report concluded that Ethan was not genetically related to Victor.
Victor’s world cracked.
“No.”
Lily whispered:
“Victor…”
He looked at her.
“Is this fake?”
Before she could answer, Ethan screamed.
Serena pulled him toward the car.
Victor lunged forward.
Security guards rushed in.
His father disappeared into the shadows.
Serena shoved Ethan into the vehicle.
Victor reached the car door.
He caught Serena’s wrist.
“Let go of my son.”
Serena stared into his eyes.
Then she smiled.
“You should ask your wife who Ethan’s real father was.”
The car sped away.
Victor stood in the driveway.
His fists were shaking.
Lily approached carefully.
“Victor.”
“Don’t.”
He turned.
“Every person I trusted has lied to me.”
She swallowed.
“I didn’t.”
He stared at her.
“Then prove it.”
“How?”
“Find Ethan.”
Lily nodded.
“I will.”
Victor’s phone rang.
Unknown number.
He answered.
No one spoke.
Then a child’s voice whispered:
“Daddy?”
Victor’s heart stopped.
“Ethan?”
“Daddy… Serena isn’t the one who took me.”
“What?”
“She took me from the house…”
A pause.
“…but someone else is here with me.”
Victor looked at Lily.
Then the line went dead.
A location appeared on his phone.
An abandoned hospital.
Victor grabbed his keys.
Lily followed.
But neither noticed the second message arriving.
It contained a photograph.
Ethan tied to a chair.
And standing behind him was a woman.
May you like
A woman Victor had buried six years ago.
Evelyn.
