Chapter 6: The Arrangement
Marcus had the contents of the second phone within two hours.
He laid a printed summary on the dining room table in front of Victor and Claire without a word.
Victor read it.
Claire read it.
Lily sat across the room with Ethan, who had woken and was now quietly pulling at the buttons on her sleeve, and she watched Victor's face while he read.
His expression didn't change.
That, she was learning, was how you knew it was serious.
"Fourteen messages," Marcus said.
"All to the same number.
Registered to a shell company, but the IP traces back to a building on West Wacker.
Falcone's people use that building."
"What did the messages say?" Lily asked.
Claire looked at Victor.
He nodded.
"The first message was sent the day Victor's travel schedule was confirmed for this month," Marcus said.
"It said: 'Window is open.
Moving forward.' The second said: 'Nanny is a problem.
Will resolve before you arrive.' The third—" He paused.
"The third said: 'The boy won't be an obstacle much longer.'"
Lily's hand went flat on the table.
Ethan looked up at her.
He patted her hand with his small, warm palm.
"She wasn't just hurting him," Lily said.
"No," Victor said.
"She was—" Lily stopped.
She looked at Ethan's face.
His wide dark eyes.
His father's jaw, even at fourteen months.
"She was making sure he wouldn't live long enough to inherit."
Nobody corrected her.
Serena, who had been sitting in silence for the past hour with Marcus stationed near her chair, made a sound that might have been a laugh.
"You're all constructing a fantasy," she said.
"A few text messages with no named sender, no context, no—"
"There's a voice message," Marcus said.
"On the same phone.
Received four days ago."
Serena went quiet.
Marcus set a small recorder on the table.
He pressed play.
The voice was male.
Unhurried.
The accent was faintly European.
*"Serena.
The documents are ready.
Once the boy is out of the picture, the trust reverts to the estate's secondary beneficiary.
Your name is already on the revised paperwork.
Blackwood will be grieving.
He won't look closely.
Make sure the nanny doesn't complicate things.
She's been there too long."*
The recording ended.
The dining room was completely silent.
Ethan said, "Ba." He was looking at Victor.
Victor stood up from the table.
He walked to where Lily sat and he held out his arms for Ethan.
Lily handed him over.
Victor held his son — his son, and Lily understood now with total clarity that the word was exact — and he looked at Serena across the room.
"You were going to let him d*e," he said.
Serena's jaw tightened.
"I want my attorney."
"Your attorney," Claire said, already reaching for her own phone, "is the least of your concerns right now.
The federal investigators I mentioned earlier have been building a case against Falcone for eighteen months.
This recording puts you inside that case." She looked up.
"You're not being dismissed from an engagement, Ms.
Montigue.
You're being arrested."
Serena stood up fast.
Her chair scraped back hard against the floor.
"You think you can touch me?
My father has judges in this city.
My father has—"
"Your father," Marcus said from the doorway, "is currently being detained at O'Hare.
His flight to Zurich was flagged forty minutes ago."
Serena's mouth opened.
Nothing came out.
Two men Lily hadn't seen before appeared in the doorway behind Marcus.
They wore plain dark jackets.
One of them held credentials.
"Ms.
Montigue," the taller one said.
"We'd like you to come with us."
Serena looked at Victor one last time.
"You'll regret this," she said.
"Everything you've built — everything your father built — I know where every body is bur—"
"Then you'll have a great deal to discuss with the federal investigators," Claire said pleasantly.
"I'm sure they'll find it very useful."
Serena was walked out of the Blackwood mansion through the front door she had treated like her own for six months.
May you like
She did not look back.
The door closed behind her with a quiet, final click.
