Chapter 3 - THE SIGNATURE
Amelia was transferred to Blackwood Memorial under state police protection before dawn.
Ethan refused to leave her side.
Doctors found years of sedatives in her system.
Her muscles had weakened from confinement.
Several ribs had healed badly.
There were scars around both wrists.
But she was alive.
That fact mattered more than anything else.
At 4:17 a.m., Amelia finally woke fully.
Ethan sat beside her bed.
For several seconds, they looked at each other.
Neither knew where seven stolen years could possibly fit into words.
Amelia spoke first.
“Lily.”
“She’s safe.”
“Where?”
“At the manor.”
“Does she know?”
“Some of it.”
Amelia closed her eyes.
Tears slipped into her hair.
“I heard her cry after the fire.”
Ethan leaned forward.
“What happened?”
Amelia stared at the ceiling.
“The fire didn’t start in the maternity wing.”
“It started in the records room.”
“Victor needed the records destroyed.”
“What records?”
“The trust amendment.”
Ethan’s expression changed.
Amelia continued.
“Three weeks before Lily was born, your father asked me to meet him privately.”
Ethan’s father, Jonathan Blackwood, had died two years before the fire.
“He changed the family trust?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because he suspected Victor had been stealing from Blackwood Group.”
Ethan sat very still.
Amelia’s voice weakened.
“Jonathan added a succession clause.”
“If you had a child, your shares would pass into a protected family trust.”
“Victor could never control them.”
“That part I knew.”
Amelia looked at him.
“There was another clause.”
Ethan frowned.
“If harm came to you under suspicious circumstances, voting control would immediately transfer to me as Lily’s guardian.”
Ethan understood.
“That made you a threat too.”
“Yes.”
“Victor needed all three of us removed.”
Amelia nodded.
“The night Lily was born, a nurse named Claire Donovan came into my room.”
“She was terrified.”
“She said someone had ordered her to alter Lily’s death certificate before Lily was even born.”
Ethan’s jaw tightened.
“Victor.”
“I didn’t know then.”
“Claire took photographs of the records.”
“She hid Lily when smoke reached the hallway.”
“What happened to you?”
“Someone injected me.”
Amelia touched her arm unconsciously.
“I woke up in an ambulance.”
“Victor was sitting beside me.”
Ethan’s hands curled into fists.
“He told me you were dead.”
Amelia’s voice broke.
“He told me Lily burned in the nursery.”
Ethan closed his eyes.
Victor had used the same lie on both of them.
“He said the fire had left me confused.”
“He showed me newspapers.”
“Funeral photographs.”
“Your obituary?”
“No.”
Amelia looked directly at him.
“Yours.”
Ethan felt sick.
“He made you believe I died?”
“For almost a year.”
The cruelty of it settled between them.
Two people alive.
Two people grieving each other.
A child hidden from both.
Amelia continued.
“When I started questioning him, he moved me.”
“Every time I became stronger, they increased the medication.”
“Why keep you alive?”
Amelia’s expression changed.
“Because he needed my signature.”
Ethan remembered Victor’s words.
What Amelia signed.
“What did you sign?”
“I don’t know everything.”
“He drugged me.”
“Threatened Lily.”
“Sometimes he showed me videos of her sleeping.”
Ethan’s face hardened.
“He told me if I refused, she would disappear.”
Amelia swallowed.
“Three months ago, he brought documents.”
“He said they transferred the guardian voting rights to him.”
“That wouldn’t hold up.”
“Not alone.”
Amelia looked terrified.
“He had witnesses.”
“Doctors.”
“Lawyers.”
“A judge signed competency papers claiming I was mentally incapable.”
Ethan stood.
“Which judge?”
“I never saw the name.”
The door opened.
Detective Ramirez entered carrying a file.
“We may have it.”
She placed photocopies on the table.
“Victor had a safe in his office at Saint Catherine.”
“Inside were trust documents, medical affidavits, and this.”
Ethan picked up the top page.
PETITION FOR DECLARATION OF DEATH.
The name beneath it stopped him.
ETHAN JONATHAN BLACKWOOD.
Ramirez said, “It was prepared yesterday.”
Amelia stared at the paper.
“He planned to declare you dead immediately after the poisoning.”
“And Lily an impostor,” Ethan said.
Ramirez nodded.
“Then Victor would use Amelia’s coerced guardianship transfer to take control before anyone could challenge him.”
Ethan looked at the clock.
The Blackwood board meeting began at 9:00 a.m.
Four hours.
Ramirez said, “We can arrest Victor for kidnapping and attempted murder now.”
“No.”
She stared at Ethan.
“He’s already detained.”
“You know what I mean.”
Ethan gathered the documents.
“Victor spent seven years building this.”
“He didn’t do it alone.”
Amelia understood first.
“You want everyone who helped him.”
Ethan nodded.
He reached for his phone.
“Marcus.”
His security chief answered immediately.
“Yes, sir.”
“Is Lily awake?”
“She never went back to sleep.”
“Bring her to the hospital.”
Ethan looked at Amelia.
A trembling smile appeared on her face.
Then Ethan added, “And prepare the boardroom.”
“For what?”
May you like
Ethan looked down at the poisoned-tea evidence bag.
“For the funeral Victor thinks he arranged.”
