Chapter 11 - WHAT I SAW
Marcus agreed to speak with Elaine.
Not Victor.
Not me.
He was terrified of losing his job, his freedom, and whatever protection Graham had promised.
We met Elaine at her office near the river the next morning.
My ribs had turned purple.
Every breath reminded me of Serena’s heel.
I did not let it slow me down.
Marcus sat across a conference table, hands clasped tightly.
Elaine warned him she did not represent him.
He nodded.
Then he talked.
Graham had recruited him eight months earlier.
Small invoices first.
Then larger ones.
Serena’s foundation events created easy cover because costs changed constantly.
Marcus approved vendors.
Graham moved money.
Serena supplied false event contracts and inflated invoices.
“What did Lily see?” Victor asked.
Marcus looked at me.
“I don’t know exactly.”
“You just said—”
“I know what Graham thought she saw.”
That was different.
Marcus explained that Graham had used the nursery tablet to access Victor’s authentication app before.
The first time was six weeks earlier.
The day Serena photographed me grabbing Ethan.
My stomach dropped.
They had staged two things at once.
While I was distracted with Ethan in the sunroom, Graham had gone upstairs.
Serena followed later.
That photograph wasn’t only future ammunition.
It was an alibi for where Serena had been.
“Yesterday was the second time?” I asked.
Marcus nodded.
“They needed one final transfer.”
“How much?”
“Eight hundred thousand.”
Victor stood abruptly.
Elaine stopped him with one sentence.
“Sit down.”
He did.
Marcus continued.
The transfer had failed.
Victor’s bank had introduced an additional verification step.
Graham panicked.
He needed more time with the tablet.
Then I walked upstairs and saw him leaving the nursery.
“You heard them talk about a second account,” Marcus said.
“So Graham assumed you understood.”
“I didn’t.”
“He couldn’t know that.”
The pieces locked together.
Graham tried to buy my resignation.
When that failed, he and Serena began preparing to discredit me.
Then the transfer failed.
They needed immediate access to the tablet again.
Today’s attack had created chaos.
The camera blackout.
Ethan crying.
Me blamed.
Victor distracted.
Graham planned to reach the nursery while everyone focused downstairs.
“But he already escaped,” I said.
Marcus shook his head.
“He didn’t get what he came for.”
“What?”
Marcus looked at Victor.
“The authentication device wasn’t the target.”
Victor frowned.
Marcus pointed toward Ethan’s diaper bag beside my chair.
“The backup codes were.”
I stared at the bag.
I carried it everywhere.
Inside was a small notebook Victor once gave me containing household emergency numbers.
At the back were sealed recovery codes for the nursery systems.
I had never opened them.
Neither had Victor.
I reached into the bag.
The notebook was gone.
Someone had taken it during the chaos in the foyer.
And there had been only three people close enough to my bag.
Me.
Victor.
May you like
And Serena.
📖 The missing notebook proved Serena had used the assault as cover for theft, but Victor’s attempt to stop the transfer triggered an immediate retaliation against his son. 👇
