Chapter 5: Richard
Victor came back at seven the next morning.
He came alone this time — no security guards, no car waiting outside.
He knocked twice, quietly, the way someone knocks when they don't want to be heard from the street.
I opened the door.
He looked like he hadn't slept.
His jacket was different from the night before but his eyes carried the same weight.
"Is everyone all right?" he asked.
"Yes."
He came in.
The children were at the table — I had made oatmeal with the last of the brown sugar, and Mia had arranged everyone's bowls in a very specific order that only she understood.
Noah was still in his pajamas.
He looked up when Victor walked in and went very still.
Victor stopped when he saw him.
For a moment neither of them moved.
Then Noah held out his spoon.
"Do you want some?
Olivia makes it good."
Something crossed Victor's face so fast I almost missed it.
"Thank you," he said.
"Maybe after."
He turned to me and tilted his head toward the far corner of the room.
I followed him.
"I spoke with my lawyer last night," he said, keeping his voice low.
"And a private investigator I trust.
Richard has known about this address for at least five months.
He's been paying someone to watch it."
"Why didn't he do anything?" I asked.
"Because as long as I didn't know, he didn't have to.
The moment I found out, the situation changed." Victor glanced at Noah.
"He called me again this morning.
Early."
"What did he say?"
"He said I was making a mistake.
That Elena had made choices that weren't my responsibility.
That bringing Noah into the family would create complications that could damage everything we'd built." He paused.
"He was very calm about it.
That's how Richard is when he's most serious."
"He wants you to walk away."
"Yes."
"Are you going to?"
Victor looked at me directly.
"No."
I believed him.
I wasn't sure why yet, but I did.
"There's something else," he said.
He reached into his jacket and took out his phone.
He turned the screen toward me.
It showed a photograph — a legal document, photographed quickly, the edges slightly blurred.
"My investigator pulled this last night.
It's a petition filed eight months ago with a private family court.
Someone attempted to have the six children in this building declared abandoned and transferred to state custody."
My throat closed.
"The petition was withdrawn before it was processed," Victor continued.
"But it was filed.
And the name on the filing—"
"Richard," I said.
"His attorney.
But yes."
Eight months ago.
One month after Elena passed.
While I was still figuring out how to keep everyone fed and warm and in school, someone had already been trying to make them disappear through paperwork.
"He knew from the beginning," I said.
"It appears so."
The table behind us erupted briefly — Emma had taken Ava's spoon and Ava was demanding it back with considerable volume.
Daniel separated them with the tired efficiency of someone who had done it a hundred times.
Victor watched them.
"I want to move them," he said.
"Somewhere safer.
I have a property — a house, not the estate, a smaller place on the north side.
It's not being watched.
I can have it ready by tomorrow."
"They won't want to go," I said.
"This place isn't much, but it's what they know."
"I understand.
But Richard's next move won't be a petition.
He knows that won't work now that I'm involved.
He'll try something else, and I don't want them here when he does."
I looked at the table.
At Mia's careful bowl arrangement.
At Lucas's cracked tablet propped against the wall.
At Noah, who had gone back to his oatmeal and was eating with complete concentration, the stuffed rabbit balanced on his knee.
"Let me talk to them," I said.
"Let me explain it."
"Of course."
"And I need you to understand something." I kept my voice steady.
"These six children are not separate problems to be sorted.
They are a family.
Whatever happens with Noah — whatever you decide — the others are part of it.
You don't get to take one and leave five."
Victor didn't answer immediately.
He looked at the table again.
Daniel had noticed we were talking.
He was watching Victor with the same careful, measuring expression he'd worn the night before.
"Elena's letter," Victor said finally.
"She asked you to keep them together."
"She asked me not to let them disappear.
That's what she meant."
"I know." He put his phone back in his jacket.
"I'm not going to separate them, Olivia."
"I need to hear you say it clearly."
"All six," he said.
"Together.
That's the only way I'm doing this."
I held his gaze for another moment.
Then I nodded.
His phone buzzed.
He looked at the screen and his jaw tightened.
"Richard is outside the estate right now," he said.
"He's called a meeting with the family attorney.
Without telling me."
He was already moving toward the door.
"Lock everything," he said.
"Don't answer if anyone knocks and it isn't me.
I'll call you within two hours."
He left.
Lucas appeared at my elbow the moment the door closed.
"He said two hours," Lucas said.
"Yes."
"Richard moves faster than that."
I looked at him.
Twelve years old, barely spoke, always noticed everything.
"How do you know?" I asked.
Lucas picked up his tablet.
Pulled up the camera feed.
Pointed at the corner of the screen.
May you like
The same car from last night was back.
It had never actually left.
