Chapter 8 - THE BLUE BLANKET
Lily had never told Victor about the photograph.
She had found it months earlier inside an old nursery drawer.
Anna sat in a hospital bed holding a newborn wrapped in a blue blanket.
Victor stood beside her.
But the baby wasn’t Ethan.
The photograph was dated two years before Ethan’s birth.
Victor stared at it.
His face emptied.
“Our daughter.”
Lily stopped breathing.
Victor sat down.
“Her name was Grace.”
He spoke quietly.
“She lived eleven days.”
Lily’s chest tightened.
“I’m sorry.”
“We were told she had a congenital heart condition.”
Victor looked at the picture.
“Anna almost died too.”
Marcus stared at him.
“You never told me.”
“Nobody talks about the child they bury.”
Victor turned toward Lily.
“Why did Daniel mention the blanket?”
“Because I found something sewn into it.”
Lily retrieved a tiny plastic packet she had kept hidden.
Inside was a hospital bracelet.
Grace Blackwood.
And another bracelet.
Serena Montigue.
Victor stared.
“They were in the same hospital?”
Lily nodded.
“I checked old newspaper photos.”
“Serena was there visiting her father after surgery.”
Reed took the bracelet.
“Why hide this?”
“I didn’t know what it meant.”
Lily looked ashamed.
“And after Serena started threatening me, I was afraid.”
Victor shook his head.
“You stayed.”
“For Ethan.”
Reed requested Grace’s sealed medical file.
Two hours later, the answer arrived.
Grace had not died from the condition Victor remembered.
Her final toxicology screen had shown an unexplained sedative.
The report had been marked inconclusive.
The attending physician?
Dr. Samuel Kessler.
The same private doctor Serena had insisted should treat Ethan.
Victor’s voice became low.
“Where is Kessler?”
Marcus checked.
“His clinic closed tonight.”
“Home?”
“Empty.”
Reed cursed.
Victor stood.
“Find him.”
Then the hospital called.
Ethan was vomiting.
His heart rate had fallen.
Victor ran.
When he reached the pediatric unit, doctors surrounded the crib.
Lily followed.
“What happened?”
A nurse replied,
“Toxicology came back.”
Victor’s eyes widened.
The doctor approached.
“Your son has traces of a medication that should never have been given to a child his age.”
Victor felt the world tilt.
“How long has it been in his system?”
“Repeated exposure.”
Lily covered her mouth.
Victor thought of the bottles Serena had carried into the nursery.
Then the doctor continued.
“There’s another issue.”
“What?”
“The compound matches a medication listed in your daughter Grace’s sealed toxicology report.”
Victor stared at him.
The room went silent.
Serena had only entered Victor’s life officially eighteen months earlier.
May you like
Grace had died years before that.
Which meant Serena’s connection to the Blackwood family had begun long before Victor ever believed he had met her.
