Chapter 4
Victor postponed the wedding indefinitely.
He also revoked every household credential belonging to Serena and Adrian.
The decision became public within the family by breakfast.
Serena called seventeen times.
Victor answered once.
“You're ending our engagement because your maid hates me?”
“I said postponed.”
“You changed the locks.”
“Yes.”
“Victor, this is insane.”
“My son has a fractured arm.”
“And Lily did it.”
“Then evidence will show that.”
Serena went quiet.
Victor continued.
“You don't get access to Ethan until I know what happened.”
“You can’t shut me out of my future family.”
Victor looked toward Ethan’s bedroom.
“My son is my family.”
Serena disconnected.
The cost appeared almost immediately.
Adrian supervised several security contracts tied to Blackwood-owned properties.
Removing him meant replacing staff, reviewing access privileges, and delaying a major Midtown event.
Two senior associates complained.
Victor accepted the disruption.
Then he made a second decision.
He hired an independent digital-forensics firm to review the camera system rather than relying only on his own security department.
His head of security did not like it.
“Boss, you trust outsiders with footage from your home?”
Victor responded quietly.
“I trusted insiders.”
Nobody argued.
The forensic team confirmed the privacy feature had been used intentionally.
They also recovered fragments from local camera buffers that had not synchronized to the main server.
Not full video.
Still images.
Time stamps.
Audio fragments.
One image showed Serena kneeling in front of Ethan.
Another showed Adrian behind her.
In a third, Ethan was crying.
Nothing showed the fracture occurring.
Then technicians recovered seven seconds of audio from two weeks earlier.
Serena’s voice:
“Say it again.”
Ethan crying.
Then Adrian:
“He’s three. Make it simple.”
Serena again:
“Tell Daddy Lily scared you.”
Victor replayed it.
Then again.
Lily stood across the room listening.
“What were they teaching him?”
Victor did not answer.
May you like
He finally understood that Serena might not merely have been hurting Ethan.
She might have been rehearsing what he was supposed to say afterward.
