Chapter 2 - THE WOMAN IN WHITE
Serena made it three steps into the hallway before Marcus blocked her.
She stopped so fast her heels slid against the floor.
“Move.”
Marcus did not.
“Mr. Blackwood ordered the gates locked.”
“I am Mr. Blackwood’s future wife.”
“Not an instruction I can override.”
Serena turned.
Victor stood at the nursery door holding the recorder.
His expression had changed.
The warmth she had known for almost two years was gone.
“Victor.”
“Sit down.”
“You’re humiliating me.”
“My son has a fractured arm.”
“You heard the recording out of context.”
Victor stared at her.
“Tell me what context makes hitting an eight-year-old acceptable.”
“I didn’t hit him.”
“We heard it.”
“You heard a noise.”
Ethan spoke from behind Victor.
“She slapped me.”
Serena’s head snapped toward him.
“You little liar.”
Victor moved so fast Serena stepped backward.
“Say that again.”
She froze.
Victor pointed toward the sitting room.
“Inside.”
Serena laughed nervously.
“You’re letting a child destroy our relationship.”
“No.”
Victor’s voice dropped.
“I’m letting the truth destroy it.”
Dr. Collins transported Ethan to the Blackwood family medical suite in the west wing, where a portable X-ray confirmed a small fracture in his left forearm.
Victor stayed with him.
Sophie remained with Nora.
Serena sat under guard in the downstairs study.
Martha waited outside.
When Ethan’s cast was finished, Victor sat beside his son.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
Ethan stared at his blue cast.
“I tried.”
“When?”
“Last month.”
Victor’s heart sank.
“What did I say?”
“You were getting on the plane.”
Victor remembered.
A trip to London.
Ethan had called him as Victor was boarding.
He had sounded upset.
Victor had promised to call later.
He never had.
“What happened that day?”
Ethan picked at the blanket.
“Serena locked me in the laundry room.”
Victor felt sick.
“For how long?”
“I don’t know.”
“Why?”
“I spilled juice.”
“That’s all?”
Ethan nodded.
“She said rich families don’t raise animals.”
Victor closed his eyes.
He had brought this woman into his home.
He had given her access to his children.
He had believed every smile.
Every charity dinner.
Every staged photograph of Serena holding Sophie.
“Did she ever hurt Sophie?”
Ethan’s silence answered first.
Victor leaned closer.
“Buddy.”
“She pinched her.”
Victor’s head lifted.
“What?”
“When Sophie cried.”
“Where?”
“Her legs.”
Victor stood.
He walked straight to the nursery.
Nora held Sophie against her shoulder.
Victor took his daughter gently.
“Can I see her legs?”
Nora’s face changed.
She knew.
Victor noticed faint yellow marks high on Sophie’s thighs.
Hidden beneath the diaper line.
His stomach turned.
“How long?”
Nora whispered, “I noticed bruises twice.”
“And you said nothing?”
“I asked Serena.”
“What did she say?”
“That Sophie bruised easily.”
Victor’s eyes flashed.
“And you believed her?”
“No.”
“Then why didn’t you tell me?”
Nora’s voice broke.
“Because she told me you would fire me.”
Victor stared at her.
“She said you believed her over everyone.”
Nora wiped her eyes.
“She showed me emails.”
“What emails?”
“Messages between you two.”
“She showed me one where you supposedly called me unstable.”
Victor’s expression hardened.
“I never wrote that.”
Nora looked stunned.
Victor handed Sophie back.
“Martha.”
The old housemaid entered.
Victor shut the door.
“Tell me everything.”
Martha looked toward Nora.
“Everything?”
“Every single thing.”
Martha sat slowly.
“The first time I saw something was four months ago.”
“Serena grabbed Ethan by the back of his neck.”
“Why?”
“He had walked into the dining room while she was meeting with a photographer.”
Victor frowned.
“A photographer?”
“She was staging pictures with Sophie.”
“What pictures?”
“She told him they were for a family profile.”
Victor knew nothing about any family profile.
Martha continued.
“Then Serena told Ethan he was ruining her image.”
“She shoved him into the hallway.”
“I told her to stop.”
“What happened?”
“She smiled at me.”
Martha’s eyes filled with tears.
“And she said, ‘Old women disappear quietly in houses this big.’”
Victor’s face hardened.
Nora whispered, “Jesus.”
Victor asked, “Why didn’t you come to me?”
Martha looked ashamed.
“I tried.”
“When?”
“Three times.”
Victor frowned.
“I never received anything.”
“I left notes on your desk.”
Victor went still.
“What kind of notes?”
“Handwritten.”
“Where exactly?”
“Under your keyboard.”
Victor remembered Serena often entering his office.
Bringing coffee.
Organizing papers.
He had thought it was affectionate.
Victor’s voice became dangerously calm.
“What else?”
Martha hesitated.
“Two months ago, your son fell down the back stairs.”
Victor remembered that too.
Ethan had bruised his shoulder.
Serena said he had slipped.
Martha shook her head.
“He didn’t slip.”
Victor looked at Ethan’s recorder still sitting in his hand.
“What happened?”
“I saw Serena at the top of the stairs.”
“And?”
Martha could barely say it.
“She pushed him.”
Victor stopped moving.
Nora covered her mouth.
Martha continued.
“Not hard enough to kill him.”
“Just hard enough to scare him.”
Victor’s skin went cold.
“Why?”
“Because Ethan had seen something.”
“What?”
“I don’t know.”
Victor walked toward the study.
Serena was sitting elegantly on the sofa when he entered.
She crossed her legs.
“Are we finished with this circus?”
Victor tossed the recorder onto the table.
She glanced at it.
“I want you out of my house.”
Serena’s face changed.
“Victor.”
“Tonight.”
“You’re emotional.”
“My son says you abused him.”
“A child says many things.”
“Martha saw you push him down the stairs.”
Serena’s eyes narrowed.
“That old woman hates me.”
Victor leaned over the desk.
“And I saw bruises on Sophie.”
For the first time, Serena looked genuinely frightened.
Then she smiled.
It was small.
Almost pitying.
“Be careful.”
Victor stared at her.
“Is that a threat?”
“No.”
Serena reached into her purse.
Marcus stepped forward.
She slowly pulled out her phone.
“You think you’re protecting your family.”
She tapped the screen.
“But you don’t even know who your family is.”
Victor’s heartbeat changed.
Serena slid the phone across the desk.
A photograph filled the screen.
Victor looked down.
A man stood outside Ethan’s school.
Beside him was Ethan.
The photograph had been taken three weeks earlier.
Victor recognized the man immediately.
His estranged younger brother.
Damian Blackwood.
A man Victor had not spoken to in nine years.
Victor looked up.
“What does Damian have to do with this?”
May you like
Serena smiled.
“Everything.”
