Chapter 2
Serena reached for the monitor.
Victor caught her wrist before she touched it.
Not roughly.
But firmly enough that she stopped moving.
“Don’t,” he said.
Her face shifted again.
Tears appeared instantly.
“Victor, please. She set this up.”
I sat on the floor with Ethan in my arms, still trying to breathe through the pain in my side.
The baby had stopped screaming, but he was still trembling.
His fingers were tangled in my hair.
Victor looked down at him.
Something in his face broke.
“Ethan.”
The baby turned toward his father’s voice.
For a second, he hesitated.
That hesitation hurt Victor more than any scream could have.
Then Ethan reached one hand toward him.
“Da.”
Victor dropped to his knees beside me.
“Can I take him?”
He asked me.
Not Serena.
Me.
I nodded, swallowing tears.
Victor reached slowly.
Ethan went into his arms but kept one hand gripping my sleeve.
Victor noticed.
His jaw tightened.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered to his son. “I’m so sorry.”
Serena wiped her face.
“You’re letting a nanny poison you against me.”
Victor did not look at her.
“You are going to leave this room.”
Her mouth fell open.
“What?”
“You heard me.”
“This is my home too.”
“No,” Victor said. “This is Ethan’s home. And you just hurt the woman protecting him.”
Serena’s eyes sharpened.
“Are you really choosing the help over your fiancée?”
Victor stood with Ethan in his arms.
“I’m choosing my child.”
She laughed bitterly.
“You always hide behind him when you don’t want to face the truth.”
That made Victor turn.
“What truth?”
Serena stepped closer.
“The truth that Claire is dead and you needed me. The truth that this little boy has been ruining your life since the day she died. The truth that Lily has been playing mother because you are too guilty to see it.”
My face burned.
Victor’s voice went quiet.
“You will not speak about my son that way.”
“He is not the angel you think he is.”
“He is fourteen months old.”
“He screams when I touch him.”
“Now I know why.”
Serena slapped him.
The sound cracked through the sunroom.
I gasped.
Victor’s head turned slightly.
Ethan burst into tears again.
Victor looked back at Serena with a calm that frightened even me.
“You just made this very simple.”
He reached for the wall panel and pressed security.
“Mr. Mercer?” a guard answered.
“Come to the sunroom. Bring two officers from the gate. Serena is leaving.”
Serena’s face went white.
“You wouldn’t.”
“I am.”
“You think I’ll go quietly?”
“No,” Victor said. “That is why I called security.”
She looked at me.
Pure hatred.
“This is your fault.”
I struggled to stand.
My side screamed.
“It is yours.”
Victor saw me wince.
“Lily, sit.”
“I’m fine.”
“You are not fine.”
For once, being told I was not fine did not feel like weakness.
It felt like someone finally seeing me.
Security arrived within two minutes.
Serena tried to soften.
She told the guards it was a misunderstanding.
She said I attacked her first.
She said grief had made Victor unstable.
Then Victor held up the monitor and played the clip.
No one spoke after that.
The head guard, Marcus, looked sick.
“I’ll call the police.”
“Do it,” Victor said.
Serena turned sharply.
“Police?”
“You assaulted my employee and endangered my son.”
“I am your future wife.”
“No,” Victor said. “You are a mistake I am correcting.”
Her face twisted.
The police came faster than I expected.
Maybe because Victor Mercer’s estate had its own security road.
Maybe because Marcus had already called before.
Maybe because he had suspected more than he admitted.
Two officers entered the sunroom.
One spoke with Victor.
One spoke with me.
I told her what happened.
My voice shook when I described the kick.
It shook worse when I described the weeks before.
The fear.
The crying.
The unexplained marks.
The way Serena isolated Ethan.
The officer took notes without interrupting.
Then she asked, “Why didn’t you report earlier?”
Shame rose fast.
“I didn’t have proof.”
Victor looked at me.
His face tightened.
The officer’s expression softened.
“You did today.”
Serena was not arrested immediately.
She was escorted out while charges were reviewed.
That enraged Victor.
He wanted handcuffs.
He wanted consequences right then.
The officer explained the process.
I watched his hands curl into fists.
Not at the officer.
At himself.
Because process felt slow when your child had been scared in his own home.
After Serena left, the mansion became painfully quiet.
Victor carried Ethan to the nursery.
I followed because Ethan cried the moment I stepped away.
The nursery still smelled like baby lotion and clean cotton.
Claire’s photograph stood on the dresser.
Victor’s late wife.
Ethan’s mother.
Beautiful.
Gentle eyes.
I had never met her, but I had felt her absence in every room.
Victor placed Ethan in the rocking chair with him.
The baby clung to his shirt and watched the door.
Victor noticed.
“Has he been doing that?”
“Yes.”
“For how long?”
“Weeks.”
He closed his eyes.
“Why didn’t I see it?”
I did not know what to say.
Because grief is a fog.
Because Serena used his loneliness against him.
Because rich men can miss danger when danger wears diamonds.
So I said the truth.
“You trusted her.”
His eyes opened.
“That is not an excuse.”
“No.”
He looked at me.
“Thank you for protecting him.”
My throat tightened.
“I should have spoken sooner.”
“You spoke when it mattered.”
I looked at Ethan.
“I almost didn’t.”
“But you did.”
The baby monitor chimed again.
Another motion alert.
This time from the hallway outside Victor’s study.
We both looked at the screen.
The camera showed Serena.
She had returned.
May you like
She was inside the house.
And she was unlocking the study door with a key she should not have had.
