Chapter 2 - Three Dark Screens.
Victor did not call the police that first minute.
He called the pediatric nurse who lived ten minutes away.
He called his security chief again.
Then he called Marta Alvarez, the housekeeper who had worked for the Blackwood family since before Oliver was born.
Serena watched each call as if Victor were building a wall around her one brick at a time.
"You're humiliating me," she said.
Victor kept his eyes on the phone.
"This stopped being about your pride when I found my son crying on the floor."
Lily sat with Oliver on the far end of the sofa.
The toddler had stopped crying, but every time Serena moved, his small fingers tightened around Lily's sleeve.
That reaction was impossible to ignore.
Serena noticed Victor watching it.
"He's tired," she said.
Victor did not respond.
The pediatric nurse arrived first.
Dr. Hannah Price was not Oliver's primary physician, but she had handled several evening calls for the family.
She entered with a medical bag and immediately crouched in front of the child.
"Hey, Ollie."
Oliver stared at her from Lily's arms.
Hannah checked his eyes, head, arms, and breathing.
She found no obvious injury.
Then she looked at Lily.
"Your turn."
Lily tried to refuse.
"I'm fine."
Hannah touched the swelling beginning along Lily's cheek.
"You're not fine."
Serena crossed the room.
"This is getting dramatic."
Hannah looked over her shoulder.
"I didn't ask you."
Victor almost never saw people speak to Serena that way.
Serena's nostrils flared.
Hannah examined Lily's wrist and scalp.
"Any dizziness?"
"A little."
"Headache?"
"Not yet."
"Did you hit your head?"
Lily glanced toward Serena.
"Against the side of the sofa."
Victor's eyes went cold.
Hannah stood.
"I want her evaluated if the dizziness gets worse."
She looked at Victor.
"And I want Oliver kept somewhere calm tonight."
Serena immediately said, "I'll take him upstairs."
Oliver began to cry before she had taken two steps.
The sound stopped Serena in place.
Lily whispered into his hair.
"It's okay."
Victor walked over.
"May I?"
Lily shifted Oliver toward him.
The toddler hesitated, then went into his father's arms.
Victor held him close.
Oliver buried his face against Victor's collar.
For a moment, Victor was only a father trying to understand what his child could not tell him.
Marta arrived through the kitchen doorway.
She took one look at Lily's face and crossed herself.
"Madre de Dios."
Serena snapped, "Don't start."
Marta stopped.
Her eyes moved to Victor.
"Mr. Blackwood."
"Were you home this afternoon?"
"Until one thirty."
"Did you see anything unusual?"
Marta hesitated.
Serena stared at her.
Victor caught it.
"Marta."
His voice became gentler.
"Tell me the truth."
Marta rubbed her palms against her apron.
"Miss Serena asked everyone to leave the west side of the house after lunch."
Serena's head jerked toward her.
"Because I had a private call."
Marta continued.
"She told me to take the laundry staff downstairs."
Victor asked, "Where was Lily?"
"With Oliver in the nursery."
Serena cut in.
"Exactly."
Marta's mouth tightened.
"Then Miss Serena came upstairs."
Victor waited.
"I heard the nursery door close."
Lily's face lost color.
Serena laughed sharply.
"A door closed, Victor."
Marta looked at Lily.
"Then I heard the baby cry."
The room went still.
Victor's hold on Oliver tightened.
"When?"
"Yesterday."
Lily looked down.
Victor turned to her.
"Yesterday?"
She nodded.
"Why didn't you tell me?"
Her eyes filled, but she did not cry.
"Because I thought I had handled it."
"Handled what?"
Serena interrupted.
"This is ridiculous."
Victor's voice cracked like a door slamming.
"Stop talking."
Serena stared at him.
He had never spoken to her that way.
Victor looked back at Lily.
"What happened yesterday?"
Lily took a slow breath.
"Serena came into the nursery while Oliver was napping."
"I live here," Serena said.
Victor did not acknowledge her.
Lily continued.
"She told me she wanted to start getting him used to being alone with her."
"That sounds reasonable," Victor said carefully.
"It did to me too."
Lily's fingers twisted together.
"So I stepped into the hall."
"Then what?"
"He started crying."
"He's a baby," Serena said.
Lily looked at Victor.
"It wasn't his normal cry."
Victor understood immediately.
There were different cries.
A hungry cry.
A tired cry.
An angry cry.
And the sharp, panicked cry that could make a parent cross a house without thinking.
"I went back in," Lily said.
"The door was locked."
Victor's eyes flicked toward Serena.
"Locked?"
"For maybe thirty seconds."
Serena threw her hands up.
"Because she kept barging in."
Lily swallowed.
"When the door opened, Oliver was on the changing table."
Victor's voice dropped.
"Was he hurt?"
"No."
"Then what was wrong?"
Lily hesitated again.
"There was a bottle beside him."
Victor looked toward the kitchen counter where Oliver's bottles were usually prepared.
"What bottle?"
"A small amber one."
Serena's expression went blank.
Hannah, the nurse, noticed.
"What was in it?"
Lily shook her head.
"I don't know."
"You do know," Serena said.
"It was herbal sleep support."
Victor slowly turned.
"You gave my fourteen-month-old son something for sleep?"
"It was a natural product."
Hannah's face hardened.
"Natural does not mean appropriate for an infant."
Serena rolled her eyes.
"It was two drops."
Victor stared at her.
"Without asking me?"
"You were unavailable."
"Then you wait."
"He wouldn't stop crying."
Lily's voice was soft.
"He had been asleep before you went in."
Serena's head snapped toward her.
"You need to stop talking."
Oliver flinched at Serena's tone.
Victor felt it against his chest.
His expression changed.
"No."
He looked directly at Serena.
"She needs to keep talking."
Marta suddenly said, "There is more."
Serena's eyes sharpened.
"Marta."
The housekeeper ignored her.
"This morning I found the little bottle in the trash."
Victor asked, "Where is it now?"
Marta looked uncomfortable.
"I took it out."
"Why?"
"Because Lily told me not to throw it away."
Victor looked at Lily.
For the first time, something like anger entered her face.
"I wanted to show it to Oliver's doctor."
Serena stepped backward.
"You're all acting like I poisoned him."
Hannah said, "Nobody said that."
Serena's lips parted.
It was the second time she had defended herself against an accusation nobody had made.
Victor heard Daniel's voice from the phone still lying on the console.
"Mr. Blackwood?"
Victor picked it up.
"I'm here."
"I found something."
Serena stared at him.
Daniel continued.
"The local camera view was disabled from the tablet in the primary bedroom."
Victor looked toward the stairs.
The primary bedroom was his.
Serena had moved most of her things into it three weeks earlier.
"When?"
"Yesterday at 1:42 p.m."
Marta whispered, "That was before she went to the nursery."
Serena's face tightened.
Victor asked the question everyone was thinking.
"Who used the tablet?"
Daniel paused.
"I can't prove who touched it."
Victor waited.
"But the tablet unlocked with a fingerprint."
Serena stared at her own hand.
Daniel finished.
"Only two fingerprints are registered."
Victor's voice was almost inaudible.
May you like
"Mine and Serena's."
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