Chapter 6 - The Name Lily Never Used.
For almost a minute, Victor did not ask the question.
He gave Lily time to decide whether she wanted to speak.
She stood beside the dining table, pale and exhausted, while Daniel quietly moved toward the foyer to give them privacy.
Hannah carried Oliver upstairs to the nursery after Victor confirmed the room was secure.
Soon only Victor and Lily remained on the first floor.
The mansion felt too large.
Victor pulled out a chair.
"Sit down."
Lily shook her head.
"I'm okay."
"That isn't what I asked."
She sat.
Victor took the chair across from her.
"Who was your sister?"
Lily pressed her palms together.
"Her name was Claire Bennett."
Victor searched his memory.
The name meant nothing at first.
Then something shifted.
He had seen Bennett in an old personnel file.
"Your last name is Hart."
"My father's name."
"Claire used your mother's?"
Lily nodded.
"We had different fathers."
Victor waited.
Lily stared at a tiny scratch in the table.
"Claire worked for BrightPath."
Victor went completely still.
"Serena's brother's company?"
"Yes."
"When?"
"Two years ago."
"Doing what?"
"Administrative work."
Lily looked up.
"At least that's what she thought when she started."
Victor felt his pulse change.
"And later?"
"She handled invoices."
The word seemed to connect half the room at once.
Victor leaned forward.
"Did she know Grant Vale?"
"Very well."
"Did she know Serena?"
Lily nodded.
"Yes."
Victor sat back.
The story had just reached into a past that existed before he had met Serena.
"Why didn't you tell me this when I hired you?"
Lily's eyes filled with shame.
"Because I didn't know Serena would ever be part of your life."
"But when I introduced you?"
"I should have told you then."
"Why didn't you?"
"Because Serena recognized me first."
Victor frowned.
"When?"
"The night you brought her home for dinner."
He remembered the evening.
Serena had been warm and charming.
She had given Lily a compliment about Oliver's pajamas.
Nothing had seemed unusual.
"What did she say to you?"
"Nothing while you were there."
Lily looked toward the staircase.
"Later she came into the kitchen."
"And?"
"She asked if I remembered her."
Victor's chest tightened.
"You said yes."
"I did."
"What happened next?"
Lily's voice lowered.
"She told me Claire had been unstable."
Victor did not interrupt.
"She said Claire caused problems at BrightPath and left after making false accusations."
"What accusations?"
Lily swallowed.
"That invoices were being created for services that never happened."
Victor looked toward the folder photographs still open on Lily's phone.
"Like the invoices to my household."
"Maybe."
"Why maybe?"
"Claire never showed me the documents."
"What happened to her?"
Lily looked away.
"She died."
Victor's expression softened.
"I'm sorry."
"It was a car accident."
A long silence followed.
"How long after she left BrightPath?"
Lily's eyes rose slowly.
"Six weeks."
Victor felt the instinctive urge to connect those events, then stopped himself.
"Was the accident investigated?"
"Yes."
"Anything suspicious?"
"No."
Lily was firm about that.
"It was raining, and she lost control on a curve."
Victor nodded.
"Then why did Serena bring her up tonight?"
"Because Claire kept copies of things."
Victor's attention sharpened again.
"What things?"
"Emails."
"Invoices?"
"I don't know."
"Where are they?"
"I don't know that either."
Victor studied her.
"But Serena thinks you do."
Lily nodded.
"I think so."
The room seemed to close in around them.
"Did Serena ever ask you?"
"Three times."
"And you didn't tell me."
Lily flinched.
"No."
Victor stood and walked to the window.
His reflection looked back at him in the darkening glass.
He was angry with Serena.
He was angry with himself.
And now, against his will, he was angry with Lily too.
"You knew my fiancée had a connection to a company your sister accused of false billing."
Lily stared at the floor.
"Yes."
"You knew she was asking you for possible evidence."
"Yes."
"And you stayed silent."
"Yes."
Victor turned.
"Why?"
Lily finally looked at him.
"Because I was afraid you would fire me."
The honesty disarmed him more than an excuse would have.
"Why would I fire you for that?"
"Because she was the woman you loved."
Victor said nothing.
Lily's voice shook.
"And I was the employee telling you that your future wife might be connected to something ugly from my family's past."
"You could have trusted me."
"I didn't know you yet."
Victor flinched slightly.
The statement was fair.
"What changed?"
"Oliver."
Victor frowned.
"What about him?"
"I stayed because of him."
Lily wiped quickly beneath one eye.
"Then the longer I stayed, the harder it became to tell you why I was afraid of Serena."
Victor sat again.
"Did you take this job because of BrightPath?"
"No."
"Did you know I had any connection to Grant Vale?"
"No."
"Did you know Serena would become my fiancée?"
"No."
Victor believed those answers.
He had hired Lily months before meeting Serena at a charity gala.
That timeline was easy to verify.
"Then Serena was trying to make it sound like you entered my house with a plan."
Lily nodded.
"She told me you would believe that."
Victor's expression hardened.
"She was wrong."
Lily looked uncertain.
"Was she?"
Victor did not answer immediately.
Trust was no longer simple in his house.
But facts still mattered.
"Daniel will verify everything you told me."
"I understand."
"Not because I think you're lying."
Victor paused.
"Because I should have verified more things before now."
Lily nodded.
Victor asked one more question before the phone vibrated.
"What did Serena threaten you with when you wouldn't tell her where Claire's records were?"
Lily's face tightened.
"At first, nothing."
"And later?"
"She said I could lose my job."
"You already told me that."
Lily looked down.
"She also said she could make sure no agency in New York hired me again."
Victor's expression hardened.
"How?"
"She said wealthy families call each other."
Lily gave a bitter little smile.
"She wasn't wrong about that part."
"What else?"
Lily rubbed the side of her wrist.
"She said if I ever accused her of anything involving Oliver, she would say I was obsessed with him because I don't have children of my own."
Victor stared at her.
"She said that?"
"Yes."
"When?"
"After the engagement party."
Victor remembered Lily leaving that party early.
He had assumed she was tired.
"Why did you stay after that?"
Lily looked toward the nursery.
"Because threats are not proof."
"And because of Oliver."
"Yes."
Victor leaned back.
He hated the answer because it made him grateful and ashamed at the same time.
"You should never have had to decide whether protecting my son would cost you your career."
Lily looked at him.
"Domestic workers make that calculation more often than employers think."
Victor did not defend himself.
He wrote the sentence down on the back of an envelope.
Lily noticed.
"What are you doing?"
"Trying not to forget the part that isn't only about Serena."
For the first time that night, Lily's expression softened without fear behind it.
His phone vibrated.
A message from Daniel appeared.
SERENA NEVER CHECKED INTO THE HOTEL.
Victor stood.
Another message followed.
DRIVER SAYS SHE CHANGED DESTINATION MID-ROUTE AND EXITED AT EAST 63RD STREET.
Victor called Daniel immediately.
"Where is she now?"
"We lost visual contact for four minutes when she entered a parking garage."
Victor's jaw tightened.
"Find her."
"Working on it."
Lily stood too.
"Is Oliver safe?"
Victor looked toward the stairs.
"Yes."
Then Daniel said something that made him grip the phone harder.
"Sir, one more thing."
"What?"
"Grant Vale's phone just connected to a cell tower two blocks from Serena's last location."
Victor looked at Lily.
Daniel continued.
May you like
"And BrightPath's office was cleared out this afternoon."
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