Chapter 1 - THE WOMAN ON THE STAIRS
The billionaire wasn't supposed to be home until midnight.
But Victor Blackwood entered his mansion three hours early.
The moment the front doors closed behind him, he heard a sound that made every instinct in his body turn cold.
His fourteen-month-old son was screaming.
Not crying.
Screaming.
Victor dropped his briefcase and ran toward the foyer.
“Noah!”
He rounded the marble archway and stopped.
Little Noah sat on the polished floor beside an overturned side table, sobbing so hard he could barely breathe. His right arm was pulled tightly against his chest.
Several feet away, Lily Hart, Noah's twenty-six-year-old nanny, struggled to push herself upright.
Her beige cardigan was torn at the shoulder.
A thin red scrape marked her cheek.
And standing between Lily and the child was Serena Vale.
Victor's fiancée.
The woman he was supposed to marry in six weeks.
Serena wore a burgundy cocktail dress, diamond earrings, and black heels.
“Victor!”
She rushed toward him.
Then she pointed at Lily.
“She did this!”
Victor stared at her.
“What happened?”
“I caught her hurting Noah,” Serena said. “She panicked when I tried to stop her.”
“No!” Lily cried. “That's not what happened!”
“She's lying!”
Victor looked from Serena to Lily and finally to his son.
Noah whimpered when Victor reached for him.
The reaction frightened him more than the scream had.
His boy usually launched himself into Victor's arms.
Tonight Noah flinched.
Victor crouched.
“It's Daddy.”
Noah finally allowed himself to be lifted.
Victor gently supported the injured arm.
“Call Dr. Morrison.”
His security chief, Daniel Reeves, appeared from the hallway.
“Already doing it.”
Victor looked toward the security camera mounted above the foyer.
The tiny green indicator light was dark.
His expression hardened.
“Why is that camera off?”
Serena hesitated.
Barely one second.
“I don't know.”
Daniel checked his tablet.
“Sir, the foyer camera was manually disconnected twenty-one minutes ago.”
“By whom?”
“I'm checking.”
No footage.
No witnesses.
No proof.
Victor looked at Serena.
She appeared frightened.
But underneath that fear, he saw something else.
Relief.
Then an electronic beep came from beneath the overturned side table.
Lily's face changed.
“The recorder.”
Victor bent down.
A small digital voice recorder lay under the table.
Lily used it to track Noah's feeding schedule, medications, sleep patterns, and the occasional instructions given by doctors.
A red light blinked.
Victor picked it up.
Serena went pale.
“Victor, wait.”
He pressed PLAY.
Static.
Footsteps.
Then Serena's voice.
“You're an employee, Lily. Who do you think Victor is going to believe?”
Something struck furniture.
Noah cried.
Then Lily shouted:
“Let go of him! You're hurting his arm!”
Victor stopped breathing.
Serena stepped backward.
“You don't understand.”
Victor lowered the recorder.
Then he looked directly at Daniel.
“Lock every gate.”
Serena's lips parted.
“Victor, please.”
“No.”
His voice was frighteningly quiet.
“You can explain to the police.”
Then footsteps came from above.
Everyone looked toward the staircase.
A housemaid stood at the top.
Her name was Rosa Alvarez.
She had worked for the Blackwoods for eleven years.
Victor had never seen her look frightened.
Tonight she was trembling.
Tears covered her face.
“Mr. Blackwood…”
Victor looked up.
Rosa clutched the railing.
“Sir… this wasn't the first time.”
Serena stopped moving.
Victor's eyes narrowed.
“What wasn't the first time?”
Rosa came down slowly.
“Miss Vale hurting people.”
Serena snapped.
“Don't you dare.”
Rosa flinched.
Victor noticed.
That reaction told him more than Serena's denial.
“Rosa,” he said quietly. “Tell me everything.”
Rosa looked around the foyer.
Daniel.
Lily.
The injured child in Victor's arms.
Then Serena.
“For six months,” Rosa whispered, “Miss Vale has been threatening the household staff.”
Victor stared at her.
“Threatening you how?”
“She told us anyone who contradicted her would lose their job. She said you would believe her because she would soon be Mrs. Blackwood.”
Serena laughed bitterly.
“This is ridiculous.”
Rosa continued.
“She slapped Olivia in the laundry room.”
Victor stiffened.
“She threw a glass at Mr. Jenkins because dinner was late.”
His jaw tightened.
“She locked Lily outside on the terrace during a storm because Noah wouldn't stop crying.”
Lily lowered her head.
Victor looked at her.
“Why didn't you tell me?”
Lily's eyes filled.
“Because every time someone tried, the evidence disappeared.”
“What evidence?”
Rosa answered.
“Security footage.”
Daniel turned sharply.
Rosa swallowed.
“Every incident happened somewhere with cameras. But afterward, the footage vanished.”
Victor's gaze shifted toward Daniel.
Daniel's face had gone hard.
“That should be impossible.”
“It wasn't,” Rosa said.
She reached inside her uniform pocket.
“What is that?” Victor asked.
“A memory card.”
Serena suddenly lunged toward her.
Daniel stepped between them instantly.
“Don't.”
Serena froze.
Rosa held the tiny card with trembling fingers.
“I found this three weeks ago.”
“Where?”
“In the security office.”
Daniel frowned.
“My office?”
Rosa nodded.
“Inside the trash.”
Serena spoke too quickly.
“She stole company property!”
Victor ignored her.
“What is on it?”
“I don't know.”
Rosa's voice cracked.
“I was afraid to look.”
Daniel took the card.
Victor handed Noah to Lily carefully as Dr. Morrison's medical team entered.
“Stay with him.”
Lily nodded.
Victor followed Daniel into the security room.
Serena tried to follow.
Two guards stopped her.
“Victor!”
He didn't turn around.
Inside the security room, Daniel inserted Rosa's memory card into an isolated computer.
Folders appeared.
Dozens.
Dates stretched back almost seven months.
Daniel's face changed.
“What?”
“These aren't normal camera files.”
He clicked one.
The screen filled with footage from the upstairs hallway.
Serena stood outside Noah's nursery.
She was yelling at Lily.
Then she grabbed Lily's wrist and twisted it behind her back.
Victor's hands clenched.
Another file.
Serena shoved Rosa against a kitchen counter.
Another.
She screamed at Noah because he had spilled food on her dress.
Another.
Serena entered Victor's private study.
At 2:13 in the morning.
Victor leaned closer.
“What was she doing there?”
Daniel fast-forwarded.
Serena opened Victor's desk.
Removed documents.
Photographed them.
Then returned everything exactly where she'd found it.
Victor felt something colder than anger.
“This wasn't about controlling the staff.”
Daniel shook his head.
“No.”
They opened another file.
Serena stood with someone near the service entrance.
A man.
His face was partially hidden beneath a baseball cap.
Victor couldn't identify him.
But he heard Serena clearly.
“Once Victor signs the revised trust after the wedding, Noah becomes irrelevant.”
Victor's blood went cold.
Daniel stopped the video.
Neither man spoke.
Then the stranger replied.
“And if he refuses?”
Serena smiled.
“Then we use what happened to his wife.”
Victor went completely still.
His wife.
Emily Blackwood.
Noah's mother.
The woman who had died fourteen months earlier.
Officially from complications after childbirth.
Victor stared at the frozen screen.
“What happened to Emily?”
Daniel looked at him.
“I don't know.”
Victor's voice dropped.
“Find out who that man is.”
Another noise came from the computer.
Daniel had discovered an encrypted folder.
Its name consisted of only two words.
PROJECT WIDOW.
Victor's heart pounded.
“Open it.”
Daniel tried.
Password protected.
“Give me time.”
Victor looked through the glass wall toward the foyer.
Serena stood surrounded by security.
For the first time since he had met her, she no longer looked elegant.
She looked trapped.
Victor walked back toward her.
Serena saw his face and immediately knew he had watched something.
“Victor…”
“What happened to Emily?”
Serena's eyes widened.
“What?”
“My wife.”
“I don't know what you're talking about.”
“Project Widow.”
Every trace of color left Serena's face.
Victor stepped closer.
“What did you do?”
Serena whispered, “Nothing.”
A new voice came from behind them.
“No.”
Everyone turned.
Victor's mother, Eleanor Blackwood, stood in the doorway.
She was seventy, perfectly dressed, silver-haired, and usually impossible to shake.
Tonight she looked terrified.
Victor stared at her.
“Mother?”
Eleanor looked at Serena.
Then at the computer screen.
And finally at Victor.
“You need to stop opening those files.”
Victor's stomach twisted.
“Why?”
Eleanor closed her eyes.
“Because Serena didn't start Project Widow.”
Silence.
Victor stared at his mother.
“Then who did?”
May you like
Eleanor opened her eyes.
“I did.”
