Chapter 4 - The First Nanny’s Secret
Victor lifted Maria from the floor.
She was thinner than Lily remembered from photographs.
Bruises circled both wrists.
Her lips were cracked.
“How long have you been here?” Lily asked.
Maria looked toward the hallway.
“I don’t know.”
“Days.”
“Maybe weeks.”
Victor’s voice turned dangerously calm.
“Who brought you into my house?”
“Damon.”
The answer landed like a bullet.
Victor did not move.
Maria began to cry.
“I tried to leave Chicago.”
“They found me at the bus station.”
“Why?” Lily asked.
“Because I saw what Serena did.”
Victor crouched in front of her.
“What did she do to Elena?”
Maria shook her head.
“She did not cut the brakes herself.”
“Damon arranged that.”
“Serena only gave him Elena’s schedule.”
Victor’s hand tightened around the edge of the dresser.
Wood cracked beneath his fingers.
Lily stepped closer to Maria.
“Why didn’t you go to the police?”
“I did.”
“A detective took my statement.”
“Two hours later, Damon came to my apartment.”
Maria looked at Victor.
“He showed me photographs of my mother.”
“He knew where she lived.”
Victor’s face remained emotionless.
But Lily saw the violence gathering beneath it.
“What does this have to do with Ethan?” Victor asked.
Maria wiped her eyes.
“Elena discovered Serena and Damon were stealing from one of your companies.”
“They used charity accounts.”
“Millions disappeared.”
“Serena believed Elena had copied the records.”
“Did she?”
“Yes.”
“Where are they?”
Maria looked toward the jewelry box.
“She hid them inside something Ethan always kept near him.”
“The silver music box,” Lily whispered.
Victor turned toward her.
“What music box?”
“The one shaped like a train.”
“Ethan sleeps with it beside his crib.”
Maria nodded quickly.
“Elena said nobody would search a baby’s toy.”
Victor took out his phone.
No signal appeared.
Lily checked the phone he had given her.
It was dead.
“The house network has been cut,” Victor said.
A loud alarm suddenly echoed through the mansion.
Not a fire alarm.
A security breach.
Victor moved toward the hallway.
Lily grabbed his sleeve.
“Maria said Ethan is in danger.”
Victor looked at Maria.
“Can you walk?”
“Yes.”
“Stay with Lily.”
“No.”
Lily’s answer was immediate.
“I am going to Ethan.”
“You are injured.”
“He knows my voice.”
Victor stared at her for one second.
Then he nodded.
They hurried down the east corridor.
The emergency lights flickered red.
Gunshots sounded somewhere below.
Maria stopped.
“They are here.”
Victor drew his weapon.
“Who?”
“Damon’s men.”
Victor pushed Lily and Maria into a service stairwell.
“Go to the nursery.”
“What about you?” Lily asked.
“I am ending the alarm.”
“That is what they want.”
Victor paused.
Lily forced herself to think.
“Damon knows you will move toward the attack.”
“He wants you away from Ethan.”
Victor changed direction immediately.
They climbed to the nursery floor.
Two guards lay unconscious outside the elevator.
Lily ran faster.
The nursery door was open.
The crib was empty.
The blankets were scattered across the floor.
The silver music box was gone.
Lily’s heart stopped.
“Ethan!”
No answer came.
Maria pointed toward the balcony.
The curtains moved in the night air.
Victor rushed outside.
A black SUV was speeding away from the rear drive.
He fired once.
The shot shattered a taillight.
The vehicle did not stop.
Lily saw a small hand pressed against the back window.
“Ethan!”
The SUV disappeared beyond the gates.
Victor turned toward the mansion.
His face was no longer controlled.
It was empty.
Terrifyingly empty.
Maria sank to her knees.
“They have the music box.”
Victor looked at Lily.
“Why take Ethan and the records?”
Lily remembered Serena’s obsession with controlling the child.
“She needs him alive.”
“For what?”
Before Lily could answer, the nursery television turned on by itself.
Serena appeared on the screen.
She was sitting inside a moving vehicle.
Ethan cried in the background.
Serena smiled into the camera.
“Victor.”
“You have thirty minutes.”
“Bring me the original succession documents.”
“Come alone.”
Victor stepped closer to the screen.
“If you touch him—”
Serena laughed.
“I already have.”
The camera shifted.
Ethan was strapped into a car seat.
His injured arm was wrapped badly against his chest.
A man held a syringe near his neck.
Damon leaned into view.
“The documents, Victor.”
“Or your son will stop breathing before you find us.”
The screen went black.
Victor’s phone suddenly regained service.
A location appeared.
Lily recognized the address.
It was the abandoned Blackwood medical clinic near the river.
Victor walked toward the door.
Lily blocked him.
“You cannot go alone.”
“They will kill Ethan.”
“They will kill you first.”
Victor’s voice lowered.
“Then tell me how to stop them.”
Maria looked toward the empty space beside the crib.
“The music box contains more than financial records.”
“What else?” Victor asked.
Maria began trembling again.
“Elena recorded a confession.”
“Whose confession?”
Maria looked directly at Victor.
May you like
“Your father’s.”
And before anyone could ask what that meant, the thirty-minute countdown appeared on every screen in the mansion.
