Chapter 7: What Victor Read
He read it standing up.
He didn't sit down.
He didn't move for a long time.
Then he set the phone on the table, face-up, so Daniel could see the screen.
Daniel read it.
His expression didn't change, but his hand went to his own phone immediately.
Lily couldn't see the screen from where she was sitting.
But she watched Victor's face, and that was enough.
"Victor," Serena said.
Her voice had lost all its shape.
"Whatever that says—"
"It says," Victor said, "that he needs to know if the situation has been contained.
And that if it hasn't, he's prepared to leave the country by morning."
The room was absolutely silent.
"He's prepared to leave the country," Victor repeated.
"Which means he already knows something has gone wrong tonight.
Which means you contacted him.
Before Paul arrived.
When you were in the study."
Serena's hand came up — a small gesture, almost helpless.
"I was scared," she said.
"I called someone I trusted."
"You called the man who missed a fracture in my nine-month-old son's wrist.
And his first response was to ask if the situation had been contained." Victor's voice didn't rise.
It dropped.
"What situation, Serena?
What exactly needed to be contained?"
Paul Greer set his briefcase down again.
He looked at Serena.
"I'm going to step outside for a moment."
"Paul—"
"I'll be in the hallway." He looked at Daniel.
"I trust you'll note the time."
Daniel noted it.
Paul Greer walked out.
Serena stood alone on her side of the room.
She looked at the evidence bags.
At Rosa and Marcus and Lily.
At Ethan, asleep against Lily's shoulder, small and unaware.
Then she looked at Victor.
"I never meant for him to be hurt," she said.
Victor didn't move.
"I want you to understand that.
Whatever you think of me — I never wanted him actually hurt."
"But you knew," Victor said.
"About the wrist."
She closed her eyes.
"You knew," he said again.
Not a question.
"Owen said it was minor.
He said it would heal on its own.
He said if we documented it, there would be questions, and the questions would—" She stopped.
"Would what?"
She opened her eyes.
"Would complicate things."
"What things?"
She didn't answer.
Victor took one step toward her.
Just one.
"I need you to tell me what things, Serena.
Right now.
Because Daniel is about to make a phone call that will involve people with considerably more authority than anyone in this room, and whatever you tell me in the next sixty seconds is the last chance you have to tell me yourself."
Serena looked at the floor.
Then she said: "The prenuptial agreement."
The words landed like something dropped from a height.
"Owen is my cousin," she said.
"We grew up together.
When I met you, I told him about the agreement.
The terms.
He said if Ethan were ever — if there were ever questions about Ethan's wellbeing — the custody provisions would activate.
And the custody provisions would affect the financial terms."
Victor said nothing.
"I never told him to hurt Ethan," she said.
"I told him to — to manage things.
To keep things quiet.
I didn't know he would—" Her voice cracked.
"I didn't know about the wrist until after."
"But you stayed," Victor said.
"After you found out.
You stayed, and you said nothing, and you continued."
She didn't answer.
May you like
She didn't need to.
Daniel was already on the phone.
