Chapter 6 - WHAT VICTORIA ALREADY KNEW
Detective Shaw obtained a warrant for Victoria’s phone.
The messages revealed that Victoria hired a private investigator six weeks earlier.
She had photographed Rosa entering the estate with Lily.
She had obtained Lily’s birth date.
She had compared photographs of Ethan as a child.
The investigator wrote,
The resemblance is substantial.
Recommend discreet DNA confirmation before marriage.
Victoria replied,
There will be no confirmation if the mother disappears first.
Victoria’s attorney argued the word disappear meant dismissal from employment.
The next messages were harder to explain.
Victoria asked the household manager to document every occasion when Rosa brought Lily to work.
She requested complaints about hygiene, damage, and poor supervision.
She ordered the parlor camera disabled on the morning of the dinner.
The technician disabled the visible camera.
He did not know about the backup sensor above the fireplace.
Victoria had planned to accuse Rosa of allowing Lily to damage the piano.
She intended to fire Rosa before Ethan arrived.
When Lily interrupted her search, anger replaced the careful plan.
Ethan read every message.
Rosa watched him from across the table.
“You still loved her yesterday morning.”
Ethan looked up.
“I believed I did.”
“Feelings do not disappear because someone becomes guilty.”
“No.”
“Then do not perform hatred for me.”
The honesty surprised him.
“I do not hate her.”
“I do not know what I feel.”
“Good.”
“Confusion is more believable than a speech.”
Ethan almost smiled.
The DNA results arrived that afternoon.
Probability of paternity exceeded 99.99 percent.
Ethan held the paper with both hands.
He had purchased companies without shaking.
He had negotiated billion-dollar contracts without losing his voice.
A single laboratory page left him unable to speak.
Rosa stood beside the cottage window.
“You wanted certainty.”
“I wanted time back.”
“That is not available.”
“I know.”
Lily entered carrying a drawing.
Three figures stood beside a black rectangle with keys.
One figure had yellow hair.
One wore a maid’s blue uniform.
The smallest stood between them.
“Who is this?” Ethan asked.
“That’s me.”
“And this?”
“Mama.”
He pointed toward the tall figure.
Lily looked at him.
“That’s piano man.”
Ethan knelt.
“My name is Ethan.”
“I know.”
“Your mom told me.”
He swallowed.
“I am also your father.”
Lily studied him.
“Like dads at school?”
“If you want me to be.”
She looked at Rosa.
“Did you know?”
Rosa nodded.
Lily considered the information with surprising calm.
Then she held out the drawing.
“You can be in the picture.”
Ethan accepted it as carefully as if it were the most valuable object he had ever owned.
Behind them, a car stopped near the cottage gate.
May you like
Victoria’s mother stepped out.
She carried legal papers requesting emergency custody of Lily.
