CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 5
SERENA'S SECRET
Victor did not tell me about the phone call.
Not immediately.
He simply stood in the nursery with the receiver still in his hand, staring at the three photographs on the wall.
I watched him carefully.
“Who was that?”
He didn't answer.
“Victor.”
He finally looked at me.
“Evan.”
My heart stopped.
“The second child?”
He nodded.
“He wants to meet me.”
“When?”
“Tomorrow.”
“Where?”
He hesitated.
“Vermont.”
I stared at him.
“You're going alone?”
“Yes.”
“No.”
His eyebrows tightened.
“No?”
“You're not walking into this alone.”
“This is my son.”
“Exactly.”
“You don't know what you're talking about.”
“I know that your wife disappeared from a locked house, someone is manipulating the security system, your supposedly dead son just called you, and somebody knows things about your family that we still don't understand.”
I stepped closer.
“You're not going alone.”
Victor looked at me for a long moment.
Then he sighed.
“Fine.”
A small sound came from behind us.
We turned.
Graves stood in the doorway.
He had heard everything.
“You shouldn't go,” he said.
Victor's expression hardened.
“You don't get to tell me that.”
“I know.”
“Then why are you?”
“Because the man who called you may not be Evan.”
Victor stared at him.
“Why?”
“Because Evan never used that name.”
“What?”
Graves walked into the room.
“The boy your father took was registered under another identity.”
Victor frowned.
“What identity?”
Graves looked at the telephone.
“Michael Vale.”
Victor's face changed.
“Vale?”
“Yes.”
“The same Vale connected to my father's attorney?”
Graves nodded.
“Thomas Vale was not only your father's attorney.”
He paused.
“He was the man who raised Evan.”
The room went silent.
Victor whispered:
“Then who called me?”
Graves looked at him.
“That is what frightens me.”
By sunrise, Serena still hadn't been found.
The police searched every road around the estate.
Nothing.
No car.
No footprints.
No phone.
It was as if she had vanished into the walls.
But I knew better.
She had escaped because someone had helped her.
And that person was still somewhere nearby.
At nine that morning, Detective Morgan returned.
He placed a folder on the table.
“We found something.”
Victor opened it.
Inside was a photograph of Serena entering a small private clinic.
The date was six months before she married Victor.
“What is this?”
Morgan answered:
“The clinic closed eight years ago.”
“Why was Serena there?”
“We don't know.”
He turned to another photograph.
“This is the interesting part.”
It showed Serena leaving the clinic.
Beside her was a doctor.
Dr. Adrian Black.
Ethan's doctor.
Victor stared.
“When was this?”
“Three years ago.”
I felt cold.
“That was shortly after Eleanor's death.”
Morgan nodded.
“And it gets stranger.”
He opened another document.
“Dr. Black wasn't treating Serena.”
“Then why was she there?”
Morgan slid a medical record across the table.
The patient's name had been blacked out.
But the date remained.
The day Eleanor gave birth.
Victor slowly looked up.
“Someone was treated at this clinic on the night my sons were born.”
Morgan nodded.
“Someone who wasn't supposed to be there.”
“Who?”
“We don't know.”
Victor's hand tightened around the paper.
“Find out.”
Morgan nodded.
“We're trying.”
Then he looked at me.
“There's one more thing.”
“What?”
“We recovered part of Serena's phone.”
My heart jumped.
“From where?”
“Inside the manor.”
Victor frowned.
“You said she escaped.”
“She did.”
“Then why was her phone here?”
Morgan placed a small plastic evidence bag on the table.
Inside was a broken phone.
“Because she dropped it.”
He connected it to a laptop.
The screen showed dozens of deleted messages.
Most were corrupted.
But one conversation had survived.
The sender was saved simply as:
FATHER
Victor stared.
“Open it.”
Morgan did.
The first message was dated three weeks earlier.
FATHER:
Has the boy shown signs of remembering?
Serena replied:
SERENA:
No.
FATHER:
Then continue.
SERENA:
Victor is suspicious.
FATHER:
Victor has always been slow.
Another message appeared.
SERENA:
What about the maid?
FATHER:
She is irrelevant.
I felt something twist inside me.
Then Serena had written:
SERENA:
She is closer to Ethan than anyone.
The reply came immediately.
FATHER:
Then use her.
Victor stared at the screen.
“Who is Father?”
Morgan shook his head.
“We don't know.”
Another message loaded.
SERENA:
What happens if she discovers the nursery?
There was a long pause.
Then:
FATHER:
She won't.
The next message had been deleted.
Morgan recovered part of it.
Only five words remained.
FATHER:
Because the girl will stop—
Nothing else.
Victor leaned closer.
“The girl will stop what?”
Morgan shook his head.
“That's all we recovered.”
I looked toward Graves.
He wasn't looking at the phone.
He was looking at Victor.
“What's wrong?”
The butler whispered:
“Everything.”
That afternoon, I went to Ethan's hospital room.
He was awake.
His arm was wrapped in a cast.
He looked small beneath the white blankets.
I sat beside him.
“Hi, sweetheart.”
He smiled.
“Mommy.”
“How are you feeling?”
“My arm hurts.”
“I know.”
He looked toward the door.
“Daddy coming?”
“Yes.”
He was quiet.
Then he asked:
“Did Grandma go away?”
I hesitated.
“Yes.”
“Forever?”
“I don't know.”
He looked down.
“Good.”
I gently touched his hair.
“Why?”
“She scares me.”
My chest tightened.
“What did she do?”
Ethan's eyes moved toward the window.
“She said I wasn't supposed to be here.”
My blood ran cold.
“Where were you supposed to be?”
He didn't answer.
“Ethan?”
He whispered:
“Somewhere else.”
“What does that mean?”
He looked at me.
“Grandma said Daddy had the wrong baby.”
I felt dizzy.
“What?”
“She said Daddy was supposed to have Evan.”
I stared at him.
“Ethan, where did you hear that?”
“Grandma.”
“When?”
“Before she hurt me.”
He looked frightened.
“She said if I disappeared, nobody would know.”
I pulled him against me.
“Nobody is going to hurt you.”
He whispered into my shoulder:
“She said Evan wasn't dead.”
I closed my eyes.
“I know.”
Ethan pulled back.
“Daddy knows too.”
That evening, Victor returned.
He looked exhausted.
He sat beside Ethan.
“Hey, buddy.”
Ethan smiled.
“Daddy.”
Victor kissed his forehead.
Then Ethan asked:
“Are you going to find Evan?”
Victor froze.
“Who told you about Evan?”
“Grandma.”
Victor looked at me.
I nodded.
Ethan continued:
“She said Evan was supposed to be Daddy's real son.”
Victor's face tightened.
“You are my son.”
Ethan nodded.
“Then why did Grandma say I'm not?”
Victor pulled him closer.
“Because she was lying.”
Ethan thought about that.
“Is Evan bad?”
“No.”
“Then why did everyone hide him?”
Victor looked at me.
He didn't have an answer.
Finally he said:
“Because adults sometimes make terrible choices.”
Ethan accepted that.
Then he whispered:
“Daddy?”
“Yes?”
“Don't let them take me.”
Victor closed his eyes.
“They won't.”
That night, Graves came to my room.
He knocked once.
When I opened the door, he was holding an old wooden box.
“What is that?”
“Something Serena left behind.”
He handed it to me.
The box was small.
Old.
On the lid was a carved letter.
S.
I opened it.
Inside were photographs.
Letters.
A hospital bracelet.
And a small newspaper clipping.
The headline read:
LOCAL BABY REPORTED MISSING AFTER HOSPITAL DISCHARGE
I stared at the date.
Twenty-two years earlier.
The photograph beneath the headline showed a newborn wrapped in a blue blanket.
The name was:
Michael Vale.
I looked at Graves.
“This is Evan.”
“Yes.”
“Why did Serena have this?”
“I don't know.”
There was another photograph.
Serena.
Standing outside the hospital.
Holding the baby.
My heart stopped.
“She took him.”
Graves shook his head.
“No.”
“Then why is she holding him?”
“She didn't take him.”
“Who did?”
Graves looked at the photograph.
“Thomas Vale.”
I stared.
“Then why was Serena there?”
He didn't answer.
I opened one of the letters.
The handwriting was Serena's.
The first sentence made my blood run cold.
I never wanted to be part of this family.
The second letter said:
He told me if I refused, he would tell Victor what I really was.
I turned the page.
Another sentence:
I am not Eleanor's enemy. I am her daughter.
I stopped breathing.
“Her daughter?”
Graves nodded.
“Serena was Eleanor's half-sister.”
I looked at him.
“But you said she was Victor's half-sister.”
“She is both.”
“How?”
“Eleanor's father had another daughter.”
I felt sick.
“So Serena is related to everyone.”
“Almost.”
I looked at the photographs.
“Then why did she marry Victor?”
Graves's eyes hardened.
“That is the secret.”
I read every letter.
Serena had met Eleanor years before she met Victor.
She had been searching for her biological father.
She discovered the Blackwood name.
She discovered the inheritance.
And then she discovered something even more valuable.
Eleanor knew the truth.
The letters described meetings between the two women.
At first they had been enemies.
Then allies.
Then something changed.
One letter contained a sentence that made no sense.
Eleanor asked me to protect the children if anything happened to her.
Another:
I promised I would never let him find Clara.
Another:
Victor must never know about the third child.
I looked at Graves.
“Serena was protecting Clara?”
“Yes.”
“Then why did she hurt Ethan?”
Graves didn't answer.
I read the next letter.
If Victor ever learns the truth, he will destroy everything.
Then another.
I have to make him believe I am the villain.
I stopped.
“What?”
Graves looked at me.
“Keep reading.”
The next letter was shorter.
He is watching me.
He knows I have the children.
He wants Ethan removed.
If I refuse, he will kill Clara.
I have no choice.
My hands began shaking.
“Who is 'he'?”
Graves whispered:
“That's what we've been trying to find out.”
I looked at the final letter.
The handwriting was hurried.
Almost unreadable.
If I hurt Ethan, Victor will hate me.
He will protect the boy.
That is the only way I can keep him alive.
I know what this makes me.
But someday Victor will understand.
I stared at the page.
“No.”
Graves said nothing.
“You're telling me Serena hurt Ethan to protect him?”
“I don't know.”
“But the messages—”
“Could have been written by someone controlling her.”
“And the recording?”
“Could have been staged.”
I looked at him.
“The camera showed everything.”
“The foyer did.”
“What about the study?”
Graves hesitated.
“The second recording was edited.”
My stomach dropped.
“What?”
“Look at the timestamp.”
I did.
There was a missing sequence.
Forty-seven seconds.
Someone had cut part of the recording.
“What's missing?”
Graves whispered:
“The conversation that would tell us who Serena was really talking to.”
Victor returned from the airport that night.
He hadn't gone to Vermont.
He stood in the doorway of the study.
“I received another call.”
“From Evan?”
“No.”
“Then who?”
Victor looked at me.
“Serena.”
My heart jumped.
“What did she say?”
“She told me not to go to Vermont.”
“Why?”
“She said Evan isn't there.”
“Where is he?”
Victor's face was grim.
“She said he's here.”
I looked around the room.
“Here?”
“In Blackwood Manor.”
Graves went pale.
“No.”
Victor turned toward him.
“That's what she said.”
“She wouldn't know.”
“She did.”
Victor placed his phone on the desk.
“She gave me a location.”
“Where?”
Victor looked toward the floor.
“The old chapel.”
Graves whispered:
“That place was sealed.”
Victor picked up his coat.
“Then we're going.”
The chapel stood at the edge of the estate.
No one used it anymore.
The doors were chained.
The windows were boarded.
Victor broke the chain.
Inside, dust covered the pews.
A single candle burned near the altar.
Fresh.
Someone had been here.
Victor walked forward.
On the altar was a photograph.
Evan.
Older now.
Twenty-one.
Beside him stood Serena.
And behind them—
A woman.
Victor stopped.
The woman was Eleanor.
Alive.
I stared at the photograph.
“That can't be.”
Victor picked it up.
His hands trembled.
The date on the back was from six months ago.
I looked at Graves.
He whispered:
“Impossible.”
Victor turned the photograph over.
There was a message.
YOU WERE NEVER SUPPOSED TO FIND ME.
Then another line:
AND YOU WERE NEVER SUPPOSED TO KNOW THAT SERENA WAS TRYING TO SAVE YOU.
Victor looked at me.
“Save me?”
A sound came from behind the chapel.
We turned.
The door slammed shut.
A woman's voice echoed through the darkness.
“Victor.”
He froze.
The voice continued.
“You finally came.”
Victor whispered:
“Eleanor?”
A figure stepped out from behind the altar.
She was older.
Her hair was streaked with gray.
Her face was thinner.
But there was no mistaking her eyes.
The same eyes from the portrait.
The same eyes from Ethan's nightmares.
The same eyes Victor had spent twenty-three years believing he would never see again.
She looked at him.
And whispered:
“I am not Eleanor.”
She removed a black veil from her face.
“I am the woman who raised your second son.”
Victor's mouth opened.
“Where is Evan?”
The woman smiled sadly.
“He's alive.”
Victor stepped forward.
“Where?”
She looked toward me.
Then at Graves.
Then back at Victor.
“He's been closer than you think.”
She paused.
“And Serena?”
Victor's voice hardened.
“What about her?”
The woman looked away.
“Serena is not the person you should be afraid of.”
“Then who?”
The woman's expression changed.
Fear replaced sadness.
She whispered:
“The man who taught her how to lie.”
Behind us, the chapel doors unlocked.
And from somewhere outside came the sound of a car engine.
Graves looked toward the window.
“Someone is leaving.”
Victor ran outside.
I followed.
A black car disappeared down the estate road.
Victor stood frozen.
Then he noticed something on the ground.
A woman's red heel.
The same kind Serena had worn when she attacked Ethan.
He picked it up.
There was blood on it.
But it wasn't Serena's.
It was fresh.
And beneath the heel was a folded piece of paper.
Victor opened it.
May you like
Three words were written inside.
FIND THE DOCTOR.
