Chapter 5
Lily admitted she had suspected something for almost a month.
Victor looked at her.
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“I tried.”
“When?”
“Three times.”
The first was after Ethan came back from an afternoon with Serena and said he was supposed to call Lily “bad.”
The second was when Lily found bruising on his upper arm.
The third came after Ethan woke from a nap crying and repeating:
“Don't make Daddy mad.”
Victor remembered all three conversations.
Not the details.
His responses.
Serena is trying to bond with him.
He’s adjusting.
Stop turning every disagreement into an accusation.
Lily had eventually stopped telling him.
That realization hurt more than he expected.
“You thought I wouldn't believe you.”
“I knew you wouldn't.”
Victor looked away.
Lily continued.
“I also knew if I pushed too hard, you'd fire me.”
“You've been with Ethan since he was a baby.”
“That didn't stop you from warning me.”
Victor had no defense.
Then Lily revealed something else.
Grace, during the last weeks of her illness, had made Lily promise one thing.
Not to raise Ethan.
Not to remain forever.
Simply to tell Victor when grief made him stop noticing his son.
Lily had kept that promise badly because Victor had made honesty expensive.
The words landed cleanly.
Victor changed the subject because he needed facts.
“Did Serena ever ask you to make Ethan afraid of her?”
“No.”
“Did she complain he rejected her?”
“Constantly.”
Serena hated that Ethan ran to Lily first.
She especially hated that he still called Grace “Mommy” when looking at photographs.
Once Serena removed Grace’s picture from the nursery.
Lily put it back.
Serena reported Lily for insubordination.
Victor had sided with Serena.
Now the conflict looked different.
That evening the forensic team found a second audio fragment.
Adrian’s voice.
“If the kid keeps choosing the maid, Victor keeps delaying.”
Serena answered:
“I know.”
Victor listened twice.
Delaying what?
The obvious answer was the wedding.
But Victor had never tied the wedding date to Lily.
May you like
He had tied it to something else entirely.
Ethan.
