Chapter 4 - THE WOMAN WHO WAS SUPPOSED TO BE DEAD The Lake Geneva estate stood beneath a gray sky.
Police surrounded it.
Victor did not enter with his men.
He waited.
Because this time, he wanted evidence that could survive without his power.
Inside the basement, they found Maya Torres alive.
Weak.
Bruised.
Terrified.
She looked at Victor.
Then Lily.
“You stayed,” Maya whispered.
Lily knelt beside her.
“What happened?”
Maya told them.
She had discovered sedatives in Ethan's blood months earlier.
When she questioned Serena, she was accused of stealing jewelry.
Then she disappeared.
She had been moved between several locations.
Serena wanted to know what she had told Lily.
Then investigators found a photograph.
Isabella Blackwood.
Alive.
Standing outside a private clinic in Switzerland.
Victor stared at the image.
His voice was barely audible.
“She died.”
Marco swallowed.
“I verified the body.”
“Did you see her?”
“No.”
That answer destroyed something inside Victor.
The investigation moved quickly.
Isabella had been admitted to a psychiatric facility under another name.
Her guardian authorization had been signed by Serena.
Then the truth became even darker.
Serena was Isabella's half-sister.
She had spent years watching Isabella receive the life she believed belonged to her.
The family name.
The education.
The social acceptance.
And eventually Victor.
But jealousy alone had not created the nightmare.
Serena wanted Isabella erased.
A recovered recording proved it.
Isabella's voice trembled.
“I woke up in a clinic.”
“She told me Victor wanted me declared unstable.”
“She said Ethan was safer without me.”
Victor covered his face.
Lily watched him.
For the first time, the terrifying man everyone feared looked completely lost.
Then another discovery appeared.
Isabella had entered the United States three weeks earlier.
Under escort.
Destination: Chicago.
Victor stood.
“She’s here.”
Then Lily noticed a child's drawing pinned beneath a desk.
A mother.
A baby.
A black house.
And one sentence:
THE MOTHER COMES HOME AFTER THE WEDDING.
Serena had never planned to kill Isabella.
She had planned something worse.
She intended to bring Isabella back after the wedding.
When Victor had already given Serena legal authority.
When Ethan had already been removed.
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When Isabella's identity had already been buried.
She intended to make the dead woman disappear again.
