Chapter 3: What a Man Like Victor Blackwood Does Not Do
Victor crossed the foyer in four steps.
He did not run.
Men like Victor Blackwood did not run.
But something in the way he moved — that controlled, deliberate speed — made Serena take one small step backward without appearing to realize she had done it.
He crouched in front of Lily and looked at Ethan's arm.
His jaw tightened.
"Let me see him."
His voice was quiet.
That was the part that frightened Lily more than shouting would have.
She had worked in this house for six months.
She had never once heard Victor Blackwood raise his voice.
And she had learned, in those six months, that the quieter he became, the more dangerous the room got.
She loosened her grip on Ethan just enough for Victor to look at the arm.
The baby whimpered.
Victor's hand moved to Ethan's back, one large palm spread gently between the small shoulder blades.
"It's okay," he said, so low it was almost only for Ethan.
"I'm here."
Then he stood.
He turned to face Serena.
"Tell me what happened."
Serena's expression was already arranged.
Concerned.
Confused.
Slightly wounded.
"I already told you.
I came home and she was on the floor with him.
I don't know what she did, but he was already crying when I—"
"His arm," Victor said.
"Look at his arm, Serena."
She glanced at Ethan.
"Children fall.
They—"
"Those are grip marks."
Silence.
Serena's chin lifted slightly.
"Victor, I understand you're upset.
But you need to think carefully about who you're choosing to believe here.
She is the nanny.
I am going to be your wife."
"Lily." Victor did not look away from Serena.
"Tell me what you saw."
Lily's throat was dry.
Her stomach still burned where Serena's heel had landed.
She was still on the floor, still holding Ethan, still shaking.
And every rational part of her brain was reminding her of exactly what Serena had said.
*You think anyone will believe some cheap nanny?*
She looked at Victor's face.
He was still watching Serena.
But something in the angle of his head told Lily he was listening.
Completely.
Only for her.
She took a breath.
"She was dragging him by the arm across the floor," Lily said.
"He was screaming.
I tried to stop her and she — she hjt me.
With her heel.
I fell.
She told me if I touched him again she would make me disappear."
The room did not move.
Serena laughed.
It was a short, light sound, perfectly calibrated.
"That is the most absurd thing I have ever heard.
Victor, she is clearly trying to deflect from whatever she did to him.
I want her removed from this house tonight.
I want her—"
"Marcus."
One of Victor's men appeared from the hallway.
Lily had not heard him arrive.
"Take Ethan to Dr.
Reyes.
Now.
Tell her I need a full examination and a written report on every mark on his body."
Marcus moved immediately.
Lily transferred Ethan carefully, pressing one last kiss to the top of his head.
The baby reached back for her with his good arm as Marcus carried him away, and that small reaching hand nearly broke something open inside her chest.
"You can't be serious," Serena said.
"You're sending him to a doctor because of a story from the help?"
Victor looked at her then.
Fully.
For the first time since he had walked through the door.
"Sit down, Serena."
"I will not sit down.
I am not going to stand here and be treated like—"
"Sit.
Down."
She sat.
Victor pulled out his phone.
He did not dial immediately.
He held it for a moment, looking at the screen.
Then he looked at Lily.
"Are you hurt?"
The question caught her off guard.
She had expected him to send her to wait somewhere.
To be managed.
To be handled the way people like her were always handled in houses like this.
"I'm — yes.
A little.
My stomach.
But I'm okay."
"Marcus will send someone to look at you when he gets back." He paused.
"You said she threatened you."
"Yes."
"What exactly did she say?"
Lily repeated it.
Word for word.
She had not forgotten a single one.
Victor listened without expression.
When she finished, he nodded once.
Then he looked at his phone again.
Serena's voice came back, sharper now, the softness gone.
"Victor.
Whatever you think you're doing, I am warning you — my father will hear about this.
You know what my father's connections mean for your operations in the northeast.
You know what happens if—"
Victor looked up from his phone.
"Is that a threat?"
The word landed in the room like something heavy dropped from a great height.
Serena's mouth closed.
Her father's name was the card she had always held.
The insurance policy.
The reason, Lily had always quietly suspected, that Victor had agreed to this engagement in the first place.
Business.
Alliance.
The cold arithmetic of powerful families.
And now Serena had played it.
In front of Lily.
In front of a man whose child had just been carried out of the room with grip marks on his arm.
Something moved across Victor's face.
Not anger.
Something slower and more permanent than anger.
He pressed one button on his phone and raised it to his ear.
"Get me Raymond," he said.
"Tell him it's about the Montigue agreement."
May you like
Serena went very still.
"And tell him," Victor continued, his eyes on her face, "that the engagement is over."
