Chapter 5
Bianca entered without her engagement ring.
She had removed it herself.
Interesting.
Not apology.
Preparation.
I looked at her.
“Why were you in my father’s study five years ago?”
She answered immediately.
“My father sent me.”
Good.
“What did Conrad want?”
“To help Nathan.”
“Doing what?”
She looked at the pillbox.
“Testing dosage.”
No details.
Fine.
I did not need dangerous specifics.
“Why you?”
“Because Father trusted me.”
“Why not household staff?”
“Because it was secret.”
There.
“What secret?”
Bianca finally said it.
Alexander Blackwell planned to step aside temporarily.
Not retire.
Not die.
Step aside.
His memory had begun failing months earlier.
He feared public weakness.
Nathan and Conrad devised a plan to keep him functioning privately while gradually transferring decisions.
That story almost sounded reasonable.
Almost.
Then Mila’s account ruined it.
My father had said:
“You don’t decide when I become useless.”
Meaning he resisted.
Bianca admitted that.
“He changed his mind.”
“Before or after you started altering his medicine?”
She closed her eyes.
Good.
No answer.
Then:
“What was Conrad getting?”
Bianca looked toward Nathan.
He answered.
“Stability.”
Of course.
I laughed.
“Try again.”
Conrad Hale controlled three donor families and two transport alliances.
If my father weakened, Nathan needed external support to prevent challenge.
Conrad provided it.
In return, Hale gained influence over succession.
Specifically—
Me.
I looked at Bianca.
“Our relationship.”
She started crying.
“No.”
Not yet.
Nathan corrected her.
“Not at first.”
There.
Conrad wanted a future Blackwell-Hale marriage to stabilize the transition.
Bianca and I had not even met socially yet.
Our relationship began years later.
But her father had already identified her as potential bridge.
She knew that after the fact.
Not before.
I believed her.
Then I asked the question that mattered more.
“Elias.”
Bianca went pale.
Finally.
She knew.
“What happened to him?”
No answer.
Nathan said:
“He threatened to expose everything.”
“So?”
“He left.”
“Where?”
Silence.
Then Bianca whispered:
“He was taken to the lake house.”
My chest went cold.
May you like
Not left.
Taken.
