Chapter 4 - THE WOMAN WHO VANISHED
The search for Celia Torres began in neighborhoods where the city’s polished
towers gave way to warehouses, rail yards, and old brick churches squeezed between
expressways. Marcus Reed mapped every parish bell within hearing distance of an
active freight line and compared them to the timing in Celia’s recording. By
midnight, the list had narrowed to four blocks on the southwest side. Victor
wanted to go himself. Marcus told him that a recognizable billionaire with a
convoy of armed vehicles would turn a rescue into a parade. Victor hated the logic
but accepted it. Lily stayed at the lake house with Ethan, though waiting made her
feel more helpless than danger ever had.
At 2:17 a.m., Marcus called. They had found Celia in the basement apartment of an
abandoned rectory owned by a charity shell linked to one of Lucien’s companies.
She was alive, thin, frightened, and nursing an infected cut on her shoulder. She
had not been held there continuously. For months, Dante had moved her from motel
to motel under threats against her younger brother in Texas. Celia escaped three
days earlier and hid in the rectory because she remembered renovation crews saying
it was scheduled for demolition. The photograph delivered to Lily at the clinic
had not come from Celia. Someone else knew where she had been.
Celia arrived at the lake house just before sunrise under medical supervision.
When she saw Lily, she began crying before either woman spoke. Lily embraced her
carefully. Celia kept repeating that she was sorry. She had wanted to warn
everyone but believed Dante could reach her family anywhere. Victor entered the
room and stopped several feet away, perhaps realizing that his presence frightened
her. He did something Lily had never seen him do with an employee. He asked
permission to sit. Celia nodded. Victor lowered himself into a chair and said, “No
one will touch your family because of me again.” Celia answered, “They already did
because of you.”
The truth unfolded slowly. Months before Serena became engaged to Victor, Dante
approached Celia with money and asked her to report on household routines. She
refused. Soon afterward, he planted Serena’s bracelet in her room. Dante gave her
a choice: disappear quietly or be turned over to police with evidence of theft,
child endangerment, and drug possession. Celia fled, but not before copying
several security files. She later learned that Serena and Lucien were building a
case designed to make Victor appear unable to protect Ethan. “They needed injuries
that could be blamed on the house,” she said. Lily’s fists tightened. “And Emily?”
Victor asked.
Celia looked at him for a long time. “Dante said the same people had already
solved one Blackwood problem on the water.” Victor did not move. Even Marcus, who
had built a career around men hiding reactions, looked away for a moment. Celia
explained that she once overheard Dante arguing with someone on speakerphone. The
caller mentioned “the marina report” and complained that Emily’s sister had not
stopped asking questions. Dante replied that the accident had been clean and that
no one could prove the fuel line was cut. Celia had no recording of the call, only
memory. Victor stood and walked to the windows. Outside, Lake Michigan was gray
beneath the first light. For years he had carried guilt that Emily died while he
was away negotiating a shipping deal. Now grief reopened with a different shape.
Claire Ward was contacted in Norway, where she was completing a research project.
At first she refused to speak with Victor. When Eleanor explained that Ethan was
injured and Emily’s will had been stolen, Claire’s silence lasted nearly a minute.
Then she said she had tried to warn Victor after the accident. She found
inconsistencies in the boat’s maintenance records and hired an engineer who
believed the fuel line had been deliberately weakened. Before the engineer could
give a formal statement, he withdrew and left the state. Claire blamed Victor’s
world and cut contact. “I thought your enemies killed her,” she said over the
encrypted call. Victor answered, “So did I, until I stopped thinking about it.”
Claire possessed something no one else knew existed: a photocopy of Emily’s
handwritten codicil. She emailed it to Eleanor. The document named the Montigue
family specifically and included a note beside the prohibition: L.M. KNOWS ABOUT
HARBOR 14. DO NOT TRUST HIS CHARITY FOUNDATION. Lucien Montigue’s initials were
impossible to ignore. Harbor 14 was a dock complex Victor had sold six years
earlier after a suspicious fire. Lucien bought the property through a development
consortium and later turned it into luxury apartments. Victor remembered the
transaction because Emily had opposed it. She claimed the original fire displaced
families who were never properly compensated.
Marcus began digging into Harbor 14 and uncovered financial records showing that
Emily had quietly funded a legal aid group investigating fraudulent insurance
claims connected to the fire. Those claims led to shell companies controlled by
Lucien. If Emily had exposed the scheme, Lucien could have faced criminal charges
and lost hundreds of millions. Her death ended the investigation. Three months
later, Lucien purchased the property at a discount. Suddenly the family rivalry
was not about old pride. It was about motive.
The next breakthrough came from an unexpected place. Ethan woke from his nap
screaming when he saw a man in a dark jacket outside the bedroom window. Security
rushed in, but the man was gone. The grounds had been swept minutes earlier.
Victor ordered a lockdown. Then Lily noticed something taped beneath the rocking
chair: a tiny black transmitter blinking once every five seconds. Someone had
planted it after they moved to the lake house. That meant the safe location was
compromised from within.
Victor gathered every employee in the house. No one was allowed to leave. The
security logs showed only thirteen people had entered since Ethan arrived. One was
Dr. Hale. One was Eleanor. One was Marcus. Six were long-term Blackwood guards.
Two were nurses. Rosa was one. Lily was the last. Suspicion settled over the rooms
like dust after an explosion. Victor hated what came next, but he said it anyway.
“Until we know who planted that device, no one is trusted.”
Lily stared at him. She understood the logic and still felt betrayed. “Including
me?” Victor’s face tightened. “Including me.” He opened his jacket, removed his
own phone, and placed it on the table beside the others. Then he ordered Marcus to
search him first. The gesture changed the temperature in the room. One by one,
everyone submitted. Nothing was found until Marcus inspected a nurse’s medical
supply bag. Hidden inside the lining was a second transmitter and a prepaid phone.
The nurse collapsed into tears. She said a man had paid her to carry the bag into
the house and promised her sick husband’s debts would disappear. She had never met
him face-to-face.
On the prepaid phone was a single unread message: IF BLACKWOOD FINDS CELIA, MOVE
TO PHASE TWO. Marcus traced the message through an encrypted relay but extracted a
time stamp and a photograph attachment that had not fully deleted. The image
showed Victor standing at Emily’s grave two months earlier. In the background,
half reflected in a polished headstone, was a man holding the camera. Lily leaned
closer. Victor’s breath changed. The face was older than she expected, partly
hidden by glasses, but Victor recognized him immediately. “Adrian Vale,” he said.
May you like
Marcus frowned. “Who is he?” Victor looked at Ethan sleeping down the hall. “My
father’s former partner. The man I was told died twelve years ago.”
