Chapter 4 - SERENA FINALLY SAID THE NAME
Serena’s attorney did not want her talking.
Serena did.
That frightened Victor more than silence.
She sat across from Mara Chen in a gray interview room wearing borrowed clothes because the red dress from the mansion had been taken as evidence.
No diamonds.
No perfect hair.
No Victor.
He watched from another room.
Lily did not.
She refused.
“I already spent months listening to her,” she said. “I don’t need more.”
Victor understood.
Serena began with the tracker.
“Yes, I queried Isabella’s car.”
Mara watched.
“Eleven times the night she died.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because she called me.”
Victor went still.
Mara did not react.
“When?”
“Forty minutes before the crash.”
“Phone record?”
“Yes.”
Investigators checked.
There had been a call.
Isabella to Serena.
Three minutes, twelve seconds.
Mara leaned forward.
“What did she want?”
“To meet.”
“Why?”
“She said she knew who I was really working for.”
Victor’s jaw tightened.
“Who were you working for?”
Serena looked toward the one-way glass.
She knew he was there.
“Not Montigue.”
Mara waited.
Serena swallowed.
“Damian Blackwood.”
Silence.
Victor closed his eyes.
Damian.
His cousin.
His former successor.
Before Ethan, the Blackwood trust passed to Damian if Victor died without a child.
After Ethan’s birth, Damian became secondary.
Victor had never thought that mattered emotionally.
Maybe it mattered financially.
Mara asked:
“How long?”
“Two years.”
“Doing what?”
“Information.”
“On Victor?”
“On Isabella.”
Victor stared.
Serena continued.
“Damian believed Isabella was moving Blackwood assets into her maternal trust.”
“Was she?”
“I don’t know.”
“Why would he care?”
“Because anything shifted out before Ethan’s birth reduced the block Damian would control if Victor died.”
Mara looked down.
“Then Ethan was born.”
“Yes.”
“And Damian’s position changed.”
“Yes.”
“What did he ask you to do?”
“Track Isabella’s trust lawyers. Meetings. Travel.”
“Her car?”
“Yes.”
“Did he order the crash?”
Serena’s face tightened.
“No.”
“Did you?”
“No.”
“Did you tamper with the vehicle?”
“No.”
“Then why were you watching the dashboard eleven times?”
“Because Isabella was going to meet Damian.”
Victor’s eyes opened.
“What?”
Mara repeated.
“Where?”
“Old Lakeshore warehouse.”
Victor knew it.
Blackwood property.
Unused.
Why would Isabella go there?
Serena continued:
“She said she had proof Damian had been using Blackwood shell companies to move money.”
Financial betrayal.
Not succession alone.
“Did you go?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Isabella told me not to.”
Mara raised one eyebrow.
“You were tracking her for Damian and suddenly following her instructions.”
Serena looked ashamed.
“She knew.”
“Knew what?”
“That Damian had been lying to me too.”
“How?”
“He promised me a percentage of an advisory trust if I helped expose Isabella.”
Victor almost laughed.
Of course.
Serena thought she was earning proximity to the family.
“What lie?”
“Damian told me Isabella was planning to frame me for corporate theft.”
“Was she?”
“No.”
“So?”
“I realized he wanted us suspicious of each other.”
Mara continued.
“Did Isabella offer you a deal?”
“No.”
“She told me to get out.”
Serena’s eyes filled.
“She said Damian would sacrifice me first.”
Victor watched.
Isabella had still tried to warn her.
“What happened after the call?”
“I watched the tracker.”
“Why not call police?”
Serena laughed bitterly.
“And say what? I’ve been illegally monitoring a mafia boss’s wife for her husband’s cousin?”
Fair.
Cowardly.
But fair.
“Then the car stopped.”
“At crash site?”
“Yes.”
“Did you go?”
“No.”
“Call anyone?”
“Damian.”
“What did he say?”
Serena looked at the table.
“‘Now stop asking questions.’”
Victor’s face became still.
Mara said:
“Do you have proof?”
“Old phone.”
“Where?”
“Safe-deposit box.”
Police obtained it under warrant.
Messages with Damian.
Not enough for murder.
Enough for relationship.
Payments.
Instructions.
One message sent the week before Isabella died:
D: She needs to understand the child changes nothing.
Serena:
What does that mean?
D:
Scare her off the audit.
Mara paused.
“Scare her.”
Serena nodded.
“I thought someone would threaten her.”
“Did you know anyone would touch the car?”
“No.”
“Did you ask?”
“No.”
There.
Willful avoidance.
Then Mara turned to Ethan.
“After Isabella died, why did you become involved with Victor?”
Serena looked toward the glass.
“At first because Damian asked.”
Victor closed his eyes.
The words hurt even though he expected them.
“What was the goal?”
“Stay close.”
“To Victor.”
“Yes.”
“To Ethan.”
“Yes.”
“What did Damian want?”
“Information.”
“Then why the guardianship petition?”
Serena’s face changed.
“That was mine.”
Silence.
Victor looked up.
Mara remained still.
“Explain.”
Serena’s voice hardened.
“Damian kept telling me I was temporary.”
She laughed once.
“Useful until he got what he wanted.”
“So you built your own leverage.”
“Yes.”
“The child.”
“Yes.”
Victor’s hands tightened.
Mara continued.
“You forged caregiver authority.”
“Yes.”
“Injury reports.”
“I signed them.”
“Were the reported injuries real?”
Some.
Silence.
“Some?”
Serena looked down.
“Some happened because I hurt him.”
There.
Direct.
Victor stood.
Gabriel touched his arm.
“Stay.”
Victor’s voice was ice.
“She admits it.”
Mara kept questioning.
“Why?”
Serena cried.
“Because the guardianship attorney said a court would never give me control of a healthy child with an involved father.”
“So you created a record of instability.”
“Yes.”
“Who was supposed to look unstable?”
“Victor’s household.”
Lily’s phrase.
Manufacturing a case around a child.
“Did Damian know?”
“No.”
“Did he ever tell you to hurt Ethan?”
“No.”
Important.
Serena’s cruelty was hers.
Her plan.
Not outsourced.
Mara asked:
“Did you medicate Ethan?”
“Twice.”
Victor’s face hardened.
“What did you give him?”
Serena named a prescribed adult sedating medication in small portions she should never have given a child.
The investigators did not discuss amounts.
The medical team already knew enough.
“Why?”
“So he would be lethargic at a clinic visit.”
“Why?”
“To support notes that the household was unsafe and his schedule was irregular.”
Mara’s face went cold.
“You drugged a toddler to create paperwork.”
Serena covered her face.
“Yes.”
Victor wanted the room gone.
Instead he forced himself to stay.
“Why hurt his arm yesterday?”
Mara asked.
Serena took a long time.
“I panicked.”
“About what?”
“Victor was coming home.”
“Why did that matter?”
“I had just found out Lily had copies.”
Victor froze.
“How?”
“Her cloud backup sent an alert through the household Wi-Fi.”
Lily’s phone had tried to sync.
Serena’s admin monitoring detected large media upload.
“What did you plan?”
“Get her fired.”
“How?”
“Make it look like she injured Ethan.”
Mara stared.
“So you needed a fresh injury.”
Serena began crying harder.
“I didn’t mean to break anything.”
Victor stepped toward the glass.
Gabriel caught his shoulder.
“Victor.”
He stopped.
Mara did not soften.
“You dragged him by the arm.”
“Yes.”
“You kicked Lily when she intervened.”
“Yes.”
“You threatened to make her disappear.”
Serena whispered:
“Yes.”
No excuse.
Mara slid the audio transcript across.
“What about this phone call?”
The one Lily recorded.
Because if the boy is injured too badly before I have household authority, Victor will ask questions.
“Who were you speaking to?”
Serena stared.
“Damian.”
Victor froze.
Mara pulled phone records.
Number matched burner linked to Damian’s attorney office? Not enough.
Serena gave access code to encrypted app.
Messages recovered.
Damian:
You need visible household instability before the federal move.
Serena:
No serious harm.
Damian:
I said instability, not a corpse.
Silence.
Victor felt sick.
Damian did not order abuse explicitly.
But he knew Serena was manufacturing instability.
Maybe he did not know methods.
Maybe he intentionally did not ask.
Mara continued.
“What is the federal move?”
Serena looked toward the glass again.
“Damian has been feeding financial evidence to investigators.”
Victor stared.
Against him.
Some evidence might be real.
Some might not.
If Victor were indicted or detained, guardianship emergency triggered.
Damian wanted Victor unavailable.
Serena wanted to become Ethan’s guardian.
Their plans overlapped.
“Were the records genuine?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did Damian ask you to plant anything?”
“No.”
Mara nodded.
Facts.
Then a forensic officer entered.
They had recovered camera footage from the warehouse district the night Isabella died.
A traffic camera caught Isabella’s car entering the area.
Then Damian’s.
Victor stopped breathing.
Damian had been there.
Another angle.
Twenty-three minutes later, Isabella left alone.
Damian remained.
Then a dark SUV followed her out.
Registered to a Montigue Strategic fleet account.
Driver unknown.
Serena went pale.
“I didn’t know.”
Mara stared.
“Who had that SUV?”
Serena shook her head.
“Several people.”
The vehicle had disappeared after crash.
Reported stolen next morning.
Convenient.
Then camera enhancement caught the driver stepping out briefly near the warehouse entrance.
Male.
Tall.
A scar along the jaw.
Serena’s face collapsed.
“No.”
Mara looked at her.
“You know him.”
“My brother.”
Silence.
“Name?”
“Daniel Montigue.”
Victor stared.
Serena whispered:
“Damian hired my brother.”
Victor asked Mara one question before she ended Serena’s interview.
“Does her confession mean she gets to blame Damian for Ethan?”
“No.”
The answer came instantly.
Victor nodded.
Mara continued:
“Damian may have created pressure. Lucian may have created strategy. But Serena described choices she made after knowing a child would be hurt.”
Victor looked through the glass.
Serena had spent months turning everyone around her into an explanation.
Her father.
Damian.
Isabella.
Lily.
Even Ethan.
For once, the record separated influence from action.
That distinction mattered to Victor.
He had spent his life in a world where men excused cruelty by saying someone above them gave an order.
May you like
He did not want Ethan growing up learning the same language.
And for the first time since the investigation began, Serena looked less afraid of Victor than of what her own testimony had just exposed.
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