Chapter 6
Six months earlier, Victor had made Serena a promise.
He would marry her only when Ethan seemed comfortable with the relationship.
He had said it after Ethan screamed through an entire family dinner when Serena tried putting him to bed.
“No wedding until he feels safe with this.”
Serena had smiled.
“Of course.”
Victor thought the condition protected Ethan.
Now he wondered what pressure it created.
Lily looked at him across the breakfast table.
“She knew you might leave her if Ethan never accepted her.”
“I never said leave.”
“You didn't have to.”
Victor resented the observation because it was accurate.
Serena had already spent a year building her life around becoming Victor Blackwood’s wife.
The engagement connected her socially, financially, and professionally to a world she had wanted for years.
Adrian benefited too.
His security company had received increasingly valuable work through Blackwood businesses after the engagement.
If the wedding collapsed, so could those contracts.
That gave both siblings a motive.
But motive was not proof.
Victor’s attorney reminded him of that.
“Don’t turn suspicion into certainty because you’re angry.”
Victor nearly laughed.
His entire reputation had been built on doing exactly that.
Instead, he listened.
Then something changed inside the household.
Lily stopped staying overnight.
She came for Ethan’s daytime routine but returned to her Queens apartment afterward.
Victor asked why.
“I need distance.”
“From Serena?”
“From you.”
That answer caught him off guard.
Lily had spent months protecting Ethan while being treated as disloyal.
Now that Victor believed her, he expected the relationship to return to normal.
It would not.
Trust did not repair itself because the powerful person finally admitted being wrong.
Then Ethan asked why Lily no longer slept nearby.
Victor told him:
“Lily has her own home.”
Ethan looked worried.
“Because me?”
“No.”
“Because Serena?”
Victor hesitated.
“Because grown-ups made mistakes.”
Ethan thought about that.
“Daddy mistake?”
Victor looked at his son.
“Yes.”
The boy nodded.
No comfort.
No condemnation.
Just acceptance.
That evening, Victor received an email from Serena’s attorney accusing Lily of deliberately alienating Ethan and manipulating him against Serena.
Attached were months of notes.
May you like
Detailed notes.
Someone had been building a case against Lily long before the nursery incident.
