Chapter 7 - GRACE’S FINAL MESSAGE
Serena was taken to a locked guest room under armed guard.
Victor ordered her hands restrained.
He also ordered every guard who had served during the attack questioned separately.
Someone inside the estate had helped her.
Someone Victor trusted.
Lily remained beside Ethan as Dr. Reeves treated his injuries.
The child finally fell asleep near dawn.
Victor stood at the window, looking across the rain-covered grounds.
“You should have told me who you were.”
Lily did not defend herself.
“I was afraid.”
“Of Serena?”
“Of everyone.”
Victor turned.
“Including me.”
Lily met his eyes.
“Grace loved you.”
Victor’s jaw tightened.
“But she feared what your world would do to Ethan.”
Victor looked at his sleeping son.
“She was right.”
Lily removed the brass key.
“Grace mailed this to me three weeks before the accident.”
“What does it open?”
“A safety-deposit box.”
Victor immediately reached for his phone.
Lily stopped him.
“The bank does not have the box.”
She explained that Grace had rented a private compartment through a legal firm in Milwaukee.
The key would open it only when paired with a spoken code.
“What code?”
“I don’t know.”
Victor’s patience disappeared.
“You came into my house without knowing how to access the evidence?”
“I know Grace.”
Lily touched the locket around her neck.
“She would have hidden the code in something personal.”
Victor examined the locket.
Inside was a faded photograph of two young girls standing beside a lake.
Grace was sixteen.
Lily was seven.
On the back, someone had written four words.
Where the black swans sleep.
Victor recognized the place.
“Lake Bellrose.”
Grace’s family had once owned a cabin there.
It had burned down years earlier.
Victor ordered two vehicles prepared.
Lily stared at him.
“Ethan cannot travel.”
“He will remain here with Dr. Reeves and twenty guards.”
“I’m not leaving him.”
Victor stepped closer.
“If the evidence explains who is trying to kill my son, we retrieve it tonight.”
A cry came from the hallway.
One of the guards had collapsed.
Foam gathered around his mouth.
Dr. Reeves rushed toward him.
Victor smelled bitter almonds in the air.
“Poison.”
The security chief checked the guest room.
The door was still locked.
The restraints lay empty on the floor.
Serena had vanished.
May you like
Written across the mirror in red lipstick were five words.
BRING THE KEY TO THE LAKE.
