Chapter 4 - The Room Beneath the Chapel

By midnight, Blackwood House no longer looked like a mansion preparing for a wedding.

It looked like a crime scene pretending to be a home.

Victor returned from Wisconsin with Naomi’s recordings copied onto three encrypted drives. Marco placed one with a lawyer outside the organization, one in a bank deposit box, and one in his own custody.

Lily carried Ethan back into the secure medical suite.

The baby had slept most of the drive.

When he woke, he reached for Lily first.

Victor saw it.

This time he did not look away.

“Can I hold him?”

Lily nodded.

“He may cry when you move him. Support the splint.”

Victor took his son carefully.

Ethan stared at him for several seconds, uncertain.

Then his small hand closed around Victor’s tie.

Victor let out a breath.

“Hello, little man.”

Ethan leaned against his chest.

Lily stepped back.

Something in Victor’s face changed.

Not relief.

Permission.

As if his son had allowed him to try again.

Marco entered.

“We searched the east archive.”

Victor kept his voice low.

“And?”

“No red ledger.”

“What about Serena’s rooms?”

“Nothing.”

Lily said, “She may never have found it.”

Victor looked at her.

“Adriana said it was real.”

“That does not mean it was hidden in the archive.”

Marco leaned against the doorframe.

“Naomi said Adriana used chapel language in some of her messages.”

Victor frowned.

“What chapel language?”

“References to Saint Michael, candles, confession.”

Victor’s eyes moved toward the north wing.

“There’s a chapel.”

Lily had seen it only once.

A narrow family chapel stood between the old ballroom and the winter garden. Victor’s mother had used it. Adriana had restored it after Ethan was born.

Victor handed Ethan back to Lily.

“Come on.”

Marco checked the chapel first.

The room smelled of wax and old stone.

A small wooden altar stood beneath a stained-glass window.

Lily looked around.

“What are we searching for?”

“Anything Adriana would expect me to understand.”

Victor sounded frustrated.

Lily studied him.

“What did she associate with Saint Michael?”

“My mother.”

“Why?”

“Her name was Michaela.”

Marco looked beneath the pews.

Victor opened a cabinet.

Lily walked toward the memorial wall.

A bronze plaque bore the names of Victor’s parents.

Another, newer one bore Adriana’s name.

ADRIANA ROSE BLACKWOOD

BELOVED WIFE AND MOTHER

Beneath the inscription was a tiny carved rose.

Lily touched it.

The rose moved.

“Victor.”

He crossed the room.

Lily pressed again.

A narrow panel beside the memorial clicked open.

Inside was a key.

Not brass.

Silver.

Marco said, “That woman did not trust ordinary hiding places.”

Victor stared at the key.

“She did not trust ordinary people.”

Behind the altar they found a keyhole hidden beneath a removable piece of molding.

The silver key fit.

A section of the stone wall released with a low mechanical sound.

Cold air breathed up from a staircase.

Lily looked down.

“You have a room under your chapel?”

Victor looked genuinely surprised.

“Apparently.”

Marco drew his weapon.

“You stay here.”

Victor shook his head.

“We go together.”

Lily looked at Ethan.

“No.”

Victor turned.

“You were the one insisting on coming everywhere.”

“I am not taking a baby into a hidden basement.”

Victor almost smiled.

“That may be the first sensible thing you’ve said to me.”

She glared at him.

Miriam took Ethan in the chapel while Lily remained at the top of the stairs.

Victor and Marco descended.

Minutes passed.

Then Marco called up.

“Lily.”

She went down.

The hidden room was small and dry.

Metal shelves lined the walls.

There were no weapons.

No money.

Only files.

Dozens of files.

Each marked with a date and initials.

Victor held one open.

“These are council payments.”

Marco looked through another.

“Judges. Contractors. Police.”

Lily’s stomach tightened.

“The red ledger?”

Victor pointed to a locked metal box.

On top, written in Adriana’s hand, were three words:

FOR ETHAN’S FUTURE.

The silver key opened it.

Inside lay a red leather ledger.

Victor did not touch it immediately.

Marco said, “We photograph it before we move anything.”

Lily crouched near the box.

There was something else beneath the ledger.

A letter.

Victor unfolded it.

His eyes moved quickly.

Then slower.

Lily waited.

Finally she asked, “What does it say?”

Victor read aloud.

“Victor, if you are reading this, then either I failed to leave safely or I finally convinced you to look at the machinery beneath our life.”

His voice broke slightly.

He continued.

“Damian has been diverting money through the continuity trust. He calls it protection. It is theft. He has also built a second structure that becomes stronger if you are weakened, indicted, or declared incapable.”

Marco swore softly.

Victor read on.

“Serena is not his equal partner. She is vain, ambitious, and easy to flatter. She believes she will inherit influence by marrying you. Damian believes he will control her once she does.”

Lily whispered, “So Serena knew part of it.”

Victor nodded.

The letter continued.

“If Ethan becomes dependent on a guardian who owes Damian anything, our son becomes a signature with no voice.”

Victor stopped.

His hand shook.

Lily said, “Keep going.”

He looked at her.

“I don’t know if I can.”

“You can.”

Victor lowered his eyes.

“I was planning to leave you.”

Lily’s breath caught.

Victor kept reading.

“Not because I stopped loving you. Because I was afraid you would choose Blackwood power over Ethan if I forced you to choose at all.”

The room became completely silent.

Victor sat on the bottom step.

Marco turned away.

Lily remained near him but did not touch him.

Victor read the final lines privately.

Then folded the letter.

“What did she say?”

He stared at the red ledger.

“She said if she died before she could show me this, I should not avenge her.”

Marco looked back.

Victor’s mouth tightened.

“She knew me too well.”

“What did she ask you to do?” Lily said.

Victor looked toward the ceiling, where Ethan slept above them.

“End it.”

Marco understood.

“The organization?”

“The system.”

Victor stood.

He opened the red ledger.

Payments ran across page after page.

Companies.

Shell charities.

Private security vendors.

Political intermediaries.

Then a name appeared.

SERENA MONTIGUE.

Beside it were monthly payments for eighteen months.

Lily felt cold.

“She was being paid before you were engaged.”

Victor’s eyes hardened.

Marco pointed to a notation.

“Consulting. Vale Strategic.”

Victor flipped forward.

A larger payment appeared two weeks before Adriana’s death.

Another appeared three days after.

Lily whispered, “Blood money?”

“Maybe,” Marco said.

Victor closed the ledger.

“No guesses.”

Lily looked at him.

“You’re protecting her?”

“I’m protecting the truth.”

That answer mattered.

A year ago, Victor would have acted on rage.

Now he was forcing himself to wait for evidence.

Marco’s phone vibrated.

He checked the message.

His face changed.

“What?”

“Serena’s guard is down.”

Victor went still.

“Down how?”

“Unconscious.”

Lily’s heart jumped.

“And Serena?”

“Gone.”

They ran upstairs.

The blue sitting room door stood open.

One guard was on the carpet breathing but unresponsive.

The second had been found vomiting in the service hall.

Miriam examined them.

“Sedative exposure.”

Lily looked at Victor.

“The same kind?”

“Possibly,” Miriam said.

Marco checked the camera feed.

“Power to this corridor was looped for nine minutes.”

Victor stared at the blank screen.

“Damian.”

Marco nodded.

Lily looked toward the open front hall.

“Did he take Serena?”

Victor’s expression hardened.

“Or help her leave.”

A phone rang.

Not Victor’s.

Lily’s.

Everyone turned.

The number was blocked.

She answered.

“Hello?”

Serena’s voice came through.

“Do not say my name.”

Lily’s blood ran cold.

“Where are you?”

“Listen to me.”

Victor stepped closer.

Lily put the call on speaker.

Serena heard the change in acoustics.

“Victor is there.”

Victor said, “Yes.”

A pause.

Then Serena laughed weakly.

“Of course he is.”

Victor’s voice went flat.

“Where are you?”

“Somewhere Damian cannot reach me for the next ten minutes.”

“You drugged my guards.”

“No.”

“Then who did?”

“You are asking the wrong question.”

Lily looked at Victor.

Serena continued.

“The question is why Damian helped me escape and then sent men to follow the car.”

Victor’s jaw tightened.

“What does he want?”

“The ledger.”

Victor looked toward the hidden chapel door.

Serena whispered, “He knows you found it.”

Marco mouthed, How?

Lily asked, “Who told him?”

Serena’s breathing quickened.

“I don’t know.”

Victor said, “What do you want?”

“Protection.”

“For what?”

“For telling you what really happened to Adriana.”

The room froze.

Victor’s face became unreadable.

Serena said, “She did not die because Damian wanted her dead.”

Victor’s voice dropped.

“Then why?”

“Because I told him where she was going.”

Lily closed her eyes.

Serena began to cry.

“I thought he was going to stop her from leaving.”

Victor spoke with terrifying calm.

“What did you think stopping meant?”

“I did not think he would kill her.”

“You took his money.”

“I took money for information.”

“You took money after she died.”

“I was afraid.”

“You were rewarded.”

Serena’s voice sharpened.

“You want the truth or you want to hate me?”

“Both.”

A car horn sounded faintly on Serena’s end.

She gasped.

“They found me.”

“Serena.”

“Saint Agnes parking garage. Lower level.”

The call ended.

Victor turned to Marco.

“Cars.”

Lily grabbed his sleeve.

“Wait.”

He looked down at her hand.

“You cannot go there angry.”

“My wife’s death—”

“I heard her.”

“Then let go.”

“No.”

Marco watched in silence.

Lily forced herself to meet Victor’s eyes.

“If Damian wants the ledger, this is a trap.”

Victor breathed once.

Slowly.

“You’re right.”

He looked at Marco.

“Call Detective Halloran.”

Marco blinked.

“The police?”

“The honest one.”

Lily released Victor’s sleeve.

Victor looked toward Ethan.

“Adriana asked me to end the system.”

May you like

[COMPLETED] She waited ten years for her fiancé, but the night she marri...

[COMPLETED] Five Years After My Mafia Husband Chose Another Woman, He Me...

[COMPLETED] I CALLED MY HUSBAND 18 TIMES WHILE OUR SON WAS DYING. EIGHT...

Then he looked back at Marco.

“We start by not behaving like it.”