Chapter 5 - THE DEAD MAN DRIVING
Victor reached the courtyard seconds too late.
The SUV smashed through a service gate and vanished into the storm.
“Track it!” Victor shouted.
Marcus was already calling security.
Victor turned back toward the mansion.
“Who else knew the service gate code?”
Marcus hesitated.
“Senior household staff.”
“And Serena?”
“Yes.”
Victor’s expression said enough.
Marcus lowered his eyes.
Victor ran to Nora.
“Did Sophie get hurt?”
“No.”
“Did Serena say anything?”
Nora pressed a cloth against her bleeding forehead.
“She said Sophie was her insurance.”
Victor’s face changed.
“Insurance against what?”
“She didn’t say.”
Martha entered carrying a tiny flash drive.
“I think I know.”
Victor looked at it.
“Play it.”
They entered Victor’s study.
Marcus disconnected the house network first, worried that someone might remotely erase the contents.
Then Victor inserted the drive into an isolated laptop.
Hundreds of files appeared.
Dates.
Audio recordings.
Scanned legal documents.
Victor clicked the oldest audio file.
His father’s voice filled the room.
“Charles, she is becoming a liability.”
Then Charles Vale answered.
“She’s nineteen.”
“She can be controlled.”
Victor looked toward Martha.
“Serena was nineteen.”
Martha nodded.
The recording continued.
Victor’s father said, “She saw too much.”
Charles replied, “Then pay her.”
“She doesn’t want money.”
“What does she want?”
“Access.”
Victor leaned closer.
The next voice was Serena’s.
Young.
But unmistakable.
“I don’t want your cash.”
“I want a place in the family.”
Victor stared at the screen.
His father laughed.
“You think you’re going to marry one of my sons?”
“Maybe.”
“Which one?”
A pause.
Then Serena said:
“The one who gets everything.”
Victor felt physically sick.
Nora whispered, “She planned this for ten years.”
Victor opened another file.
This one contained legal documents connecting Charles Vale to shell companies that had quietly purchased stock in Blackwood Industries.
One company name stood out.
Montigue Holdings.
Victor looked at Marcus.
“How much do they own?”
Marcus calculated.
“Nearly eleven percent.”
Victor’s jaw tightened.
Serena was not merely marrying him.
She was positioning herself inside the company.
Another file contained a draft prenuptial agreement.
But not Victor’s prenup.
A counterfeit version.
Its terms gave Serena control of multiple trusts if Victor became medically incapacitated.
Victor whispered, “She planned to take control.”
Martha looked at him.
“Not only from you.”
Victor turned.
Martha opened another folder.
A scanned page showed changes to Ethan’s trust.
If Victor died before Ethan reached eighteen, Serena would become trustee after marriage.
Victor stared.
“How did she get this?”
“Charles.”
Victor’s hands shook with anger.
His father’s supposedly dead lawyer had prepared the entire scheme.
Then Marcus received a call.
He put it on speaker.
“Blackwood.”
A distorted voice said, “If Victor wants his daughter alive, he comes alone.”
Victor stepped closer.
“Where?”
“Old Blackwood Steel Works.”
Victor knew the place.
His father’s abandoned factory on the South Side.
“When?”
“Forty minutes.”
“Let me hear Sophie.”
A baby cried in the background.
Victor’s eyes closed.
Then Serena’s voice came through.
“Victor.”
His eyes opened.
“You hurt her, I will—”
“You’ll what?”
She laughed softly.
“Destroy me?”
“You should have done that before you humiliated me in front of the staff.”
“You broke my son’s arm.”
“He was a problem.”
Victor’s face transformed.
Marcus stared at him.
Serena continued.
“And now you’re going to bring me the flash drive.”
Victor looked toward Martha.
“Or?”
Serena stopped laughing.
“Or Sophie grows up without you.”
The line went dead.
Victor grabbed his coat.
Marcus blocked the door.
“You cannot go alone.”
“They have my daughter.”
“That’s exactly why you cannot go alone.”
Victor stepped closer.
“You have children?”
Marcus nodded.
“Two.”
“Then move.”
Marcus didn’t.
Instead, he handed Victor a tiny tracking button.
“Put this inside your coat.”
Victor took it.
“You have twenty minutes.”
Marcus’s eyes hardened.
“Then we come whether you like it or not.”
Victor headed toward the garage.
Ethan stood in the hallway.
“Dad.”
Victor stopped.
His son held the blue cast close to his chest.
“Bring Sophie home.”
Victor knelt.
“I will.”
Ethan hugged him with one arm.
Then whispered into his ear.
“Dad, Serena doesn’t want the flash drive.”
Victor pulled back.
“What?”
Ethan looked terrified.
“She wants you.”
Victor’s stomach dropped.
“How do you know?”
Ethan swallowed.
“Because I heard her talking to Charles before she pushed me.”
“What did she say?”
May you like
Ethan stared into his father’s eyes.
“She said once you were dead, nobody could stop them.”
