Chapter 3 - THE SECRET BEHIND THE BLACKWOOD FORTUNEThe last thing I remembered before losing consciousness was my brother's hand holding mine.
When I opened my eyes again, the ceiling above me was white.
A heart monitor beeped beside my hospital bed.
And for the first time in eleven years, I wasn't afraid of waking up.
Then I remembered Penny.
I sat upright so quickly that pain exploded through my back.
"Penny!"
"Caroline, easy."
Alexander rose from a chair beside the window.
He hadn't changed his clothes.
His charcoal suit was wrinkled, his tie loosened, and his normally perfect hair looked as though he'd been running his hands through it all night.
"Where is she?"
"She's safe."
I stared at him.
"Promise me."
He took my hand.
"I promise."
Only then did I breathe.
"She had moderate hypothermia and an asthma attack," he explained. "The doctors treated both. She's responding well, and they're keeping her overnight for observation."
"Can I see her?"
"As soon as your doctor approves moving you."
I covered my mouth.
Tears slipped between my fingers.
Alexander sat on the edge of the bed.
"Caroline, I need to ask you something difficult."
I looked at him.
"Did Julian hurt you before tonight?"
The question hung between us.
I wanted to lie.
Eleven years of practice had made lying about my marriage almost effortless.
He wasn't angry.
He was under pressure.
It was an accident.
I'd fallen.
I'd misunderstood.
But Alexander wasn't asking whether my husband had a temper.
He was asking whether I'd been living in danger.
"Yes," I whispered.
He closed his eyes.
"How long?"
"Almost three years."
He slowly released my hand.
For one horrible moment, I thought he was angry with me.
Then I noticed his fingers trembling.
"Three years," he repeated.
"I thought I could fix it."
"You shouldn't have had to."
I stared at the blanket.
"It started after the company merger fell apart. He began drinking. Then he started blaming me for everything."
"And Vanessa?"
"She joined Blackwood Holdings two years ago. Six months later, I found messages on his phone."
"Why didn't you leave?"
I looked toward the window.
"Because he told me I'd never see Penny again."
Alexander went completely still.
"He said his family controlled the judges, the police, the courts. He told me nobody would believe a woman who hadn't worked in years."
I swallowed.
"And eventually, I believed him."
My brother leaned forward.
"Listen to me carefully. Julian's money cannot buy the right to hurt you or keep your daughter from you."
I nodded, but my hands were still shaking.
Alexander noticed.
He didn't demand that I be brave.
He simply stayed beside me until the trembling stopped.
A knock sounded at the door.
A silver-haired woman in a navy suit entered.
"Alexander."
He stood.
"Caroline, this is Eleanor Price. She's been my attorney for fifteen years."
Eleanor approached the bed.
"I'm sorry we're meeting under these circumstances."
She had kind eyes and the sort of voice that made every sentence sound deliberate.
"I'd like to explain your immediate legal options when you're ready."
I glanced at Alexander.
"Is Julian still in custody?"
"Yes," Eleanor answered. "The authorities are investigating multiple offenses. Your medical records and the emergency responders' observations are being documented."
"And Penny?"
"Child protection specialists will interview her using age-appropriate procedures. We'll help make sure she doesn't have to repeat her experience unnecessarily."
I nodded.
Eleanor hesitated.
"There's something else."
She placed a slim folder on my bedside table.
"Your husband signed an extraordinary financial agreement eighteen months ago."
I frowned.
"What agreement?"
"Blackwood Holdings pledged its controlling shares as security for an emergency debt restructuring."
I looked at Alexander.
"Your company?"
He nodded.
"Sterling Global Credit led the financing."
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"Because you made it clear you didn't want me involved in your marriage."
I remembered that conversation.
Seven years earlier, Julian had accused Alexander of looking down on him.
My husband insisted my brother wanted to control us with money.
I had defended Julian.
And slowly stopped answering Alexander's calls.
"What does this agreement have to do with me?" I asked.
Eleanor opened the folder.
"Under certain financial default conditions, Blackwood Holdings could lose voting control of several subsidiaries."
Alexander spoke quietly.
"But I won't use my financial position to dictate your decisions. Your safety and the criminal investigation are separate matters."
I appreciated that more than he knew.
For years, everyone around me had made decisions on my behalf.
Even help could feel frightening when someone else controlled it.
Then Eleanor showed me a second document.
It was a photograph of a bank transfer.
The recipient's name made my stomach tighten.
Vanessa Hart.
The amount was $3.8 million.
"What is that?"
"That's what we're trying to establish."
The transfer came from a corporate account belonging to a Blackwood subsidiary called Meridian Property Services.
The payment description read:
Strategic advisory compensation.
I frowned.
"Vanessa doesn't do strategic consulting."
"Exactly," Eleanor replied.
Alexander folded his arms.
"One of my analysts noticed unusual transactions during the company's most recent financial review. We requested supporting documentation."
"And?"
"The Blackwood finance department refused to provide it."
I looked at the photograph again.
Three million eight hundred thousand dollars.
Vanessa had cried over a supposedly ruined forty-thousand-dollar dress.
Yet someone inside Blackwood Holdings had quietly paid her nearly four million.
"Why would they give her that much?"
Eleanor exchanged a glance with my brother.
"We don't know yet."
Something about the photograph bothered me.
I stared at the document.
Then I noticed the date.
April 17.
My wedding anniversary.
The same day Julian had told me his grandmother's jewelry collection had been stolen from a private vault.
He had blamed the family accountant.
A man named Henry Lawson.
Henry had been dismissed two days later.
"What happened to Henry Lawson?" I asked.
Alexander frowned.
"Who?"
"Julian's family accountant. He worked for Charles Blackwood for almost thirty years."
Eleanor made a note.
"Do you know where he is?"
"No. Julian told me he'd stolen company money and disappeared."
Alexander reached for his phone.
"Find him," he told his assistant.
An hour later, a nurse wheeled me into Penny's room.
My daughter lay beneath a thick pink blanket, holding a stuffed rabbit.
Her cheeks had regained their color.
When she saw me, her face crumpled.
"Mommy!"
I held her as carefully as my injuries allowed.
She buried her face against my shoulder.
"I thought Daddy was going to leave me there forever."
The words nearly broke me.
"Never again," I whispered.
"Promise?"
"I promise."
She pulled back.
"Uncle Alex said we're going somewhere safe."
"Yes."
"Will Daddy be there?"
"No, sweetheart."
Penny stared at me.
Then, very quietly, she said, "Good."
I kissed her forehead.
A few minutes later, she reached beneath her pillow.
"I saved something."
She pulled out a tiny silver bracelet.
Vanessa's bracelet.
I recognized its diamond-studded charm immediately.
"Where did you get that?"
Penny lowered her voice.
"It fell off her wrist when she grabbed me."
I took it carefully.
Something was caught inside the clasp.
A folded fragment of paper.
Penny looked frightened.
"I didn't take it, Mommy. It fell."
"I know, sweetheart."
I unfolded the paper.
It contained four handwritten words.
Lawson knows about Claire.
I stared at the handwriting.
Claire.
The name meant nothing to me.
But it meant something to Alexander.
When I showed him the paper, he stopped breathing for a moment.
"Where did you get this?"
I explained.
His face turned pale.
"Alex?"
He looked toward the hospital door.
Then back at me.
"Caroline, Claire was the name of the woman who died the night the Blackwood fortune was almost destroyed."
I felt a chill move through me.
"What woman?"
Alexander lowered his voice.
"Your husband's first wife."
I stared at him.
"Julian told me he'd never been married before."
May you like
My brother looked at the paper again.
"Then he lied about something far worse than his marriage."
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