Chapter 7: The Morning It Became Real
Richard Chen arrived at eight o'clock with two associates and a woman from the financial crimes unit named Priya Okafor who had the kind of stillness that made people in the same room speak more carefully.
Victor met them in the study.
He had slept perhaps two hours in the chair beside Ethan's crib and had changed his shirt but not much else.
He looked, Daniel had told him quietly in the hallway, like a man who had been through something.
"You look like a man who has been through something," Richard confirmed, setting his briefcase on the desk.
"Tell me where we are," Victor said.
"Marcus Hale sent everything at two-fourteen this morning," Richard said.
"The Singapore documents, the account records, correspondence going back thirty months." He opened the briefcase.
"Ms.
Okafor's office has been expecting something in this direction for a while.
Marcus wasn't as careful as he thought he was."
Priya Okafor sat down across the desk.
"Mr.
Blackwood.
I want to be clear about what this morning means.
We have enough to move on both Marcus Hale and Serena Voss today.
The financial transfers alone are sufficient for a fraud referral.
The Singapore documents add a separate layer, but one that implicates Marcus far more directly than you." She looked at him steadily.
"Your exposure is real but manageable.
You were a party to the Singapore resolution, but you were not the architect of it.
Marcus's own communications make that clear."
"He documented his own involvement?" Victor said.
"People who believe they have leverage tend to keep records of it," she said.
"It makes the leverage feel more real." She set a folder on the desk.
"I need you to walk me through your direct knowledge of the Singapore transaction.
Everything.
Not what you think is relevant — everything."
Victor looked at the folder.
"All right," he said.
He talked for an hour and forty minutes.
Richard's associates took notes.
Priya Okafor asked questions that were short and precise and occasionally landed in places Victor hadn't expected.
She was not unkind.
She was thorough in the way that a surgeon is thorough — not for your comfort, but because incomplete work costs more later.
When it was done, she closed her folder.
"Thank you," she said.
"I'll be in contact through Mr.
Chen.
In the meantime — do not reach out to Marcus Hale, do not contact Serena Voss, and if either of them contacts you, forward it to Mr.
Chen immediately."
"Understood."
She stood.
"Mr.
Blackwood.
The child — is he being seen by a doctor?"
Victor looked at her.
"I'm taking him this morning."
She nodded once.
"Good." She picked up her bag.
"The discharge summary Lily provided is strong.
The ER physician documented the injury clearly.
That, combined with the recording and the staff testimony, gives child protective services a solid basis to open their own file." She paused at the door.
"That process will move separately from the financial investigation.
But it will move."
She left.
Richard's associates followed.
Richard stayed.
"How are you?" he said.
"I'll tell you when it's over," Victor said.
Richard sat down in the chair across the desk.
He was sixty-two and had been Victor's attorney for eleven years and had the particular quality of a person who had seen enough that very little surprised him, but who had not become indifferent to it.
"She was placed," Victor said.
It was the second time he had said it.
It still didn't feel entirely real.
"Yes," Richard said.
"Two years.
She was in my life for two years."
"Yes."
"And I didn't—" Victor stopped.
"You weren't supposed to see it," Richard said.
"That was the entire design.
People who are very good at this are very good at it because they understand exactly what you're looking for and they make sure you see that instead."
"My son paid for it."
Richard was quiet for a moment.
"Yes," he said.
"And that's the part that will stay with you.
But Ethan is safe now.
And the people responsible are going to face what they've done." He leaned forward slightly.
"You can carry the guilt if you need to.
But don't let it be the only thing you carry."
Victor's phone buzzed on the desk.
He looked at the screen.
It was a message from a number he didn't recognize.
*You think this is over.
It isn't.
I have things on Lily too.
Things you don't know.
Call me before you do anything you can't undo.
— S*
Victor stared at the message.
He turned the phone and showed it to Richard.
Richard read it.
His expression didn't change.
"Forward it to me," he said.
"Don't respond."
"What does she have on Lily?" Victor said.
"Probably nothing," Richard said.
"This is what people do when they realize the ground is gone.
They reach for anything that might make you hesitate." He looked at Victor.
"Don't hesitate."
May you like
Victor forwarded the message.
But the word *things* sat in the back of his mind like a stone in a shoe — small, specific, impossible to ignore.
