Chapter 9 - Serena Had Lied About How She Entered the Blackwood Family
Victor met Serena at a museum benefit eight months after Laura died.
At least that was the story both of them always told.
The photograph proved they had occupied the same room years earlier.
It did not prove they knew each other.
Then Megan identified Serena immediately.
“That's Serena Vale.”
Victor stared.
“Vale?”
Serena’s maiden name was Parker.
Or so he believed.
Megan remembered Serena from a nonprofit organization Laura supported.
Serena Vale handled donor relations.
She and Laura met several times.
Why the name change?
The explanation was ordinary.
Vale was Serena’s first married surname.
After divorce, she returned to Parker.
Victor had never asked much about the first marriage.
He knew it existed.
Not that Serena had known Laura.
When confronted, Serena admitted it.
“We weren’t friends.”
“Why lie?”
“I knew how it would look.”
That sentence had become poison.
People always used it after doing something they already understood was questionable.
Victor asked:
“Did you approach me because of Laura?”
“No.”
“Did you know who I was at the museum?”
“Yes.”
“Did you pretend you didn’t?”
Serena paused.
“Yes.”
That hurt him.
But it still wasn’t the major twist.
Not yet.
Megan remembered something else.
Serena had once applied for a senior role at Laura’s nonprofit foundation.
Laura opposed the hire.
Why?
Not because Serena was incompetent.
Because Laura caught her altering donor-credit reports to make certain fundraising results appear as though they belonged to her.
Minor dishonesty.
Professional ambition.
Serena left soon afterward.
Years later, she encountered Victor.
The widower of the woman who had once blocked her career.
She recognized him.
He didn’t recognize her.
And she said nothing.
Three clues now aligned.
Her competition with Laura’s memory.
Her obsession with controlling Ethan’s care.
Her need to present herself as the person who “protected his legacy.”
Serena’s marriage had not necessarily started as revenge.
But it began with information Victor did not have.
And she had spent the entire relationship managing that imbalance.
Then Megan asked:
“Victor, did Serena ever tell you Laura had contacted her before she died?”
Victor looked at her.
“What?”
Megan’s expression changed.
“You really don’t know.”
Apparently Laura had reached out to Serena during her final illness.
Not to reconcile.
May you like
To ask for help.
And whatever Serena did with that request became the missing center of the story.
