Chapter 14 - Margaret Blackwood
The video was not from the hospital fire.
Marcus had misunderstood the date stamp.
It was recorded six years before the fire.
Ethan’s mother was alive then.
The footage showed Margaret Blackwood arguing with Thomas Vale inside the old Blackwood estate office.
Thomas shouted:
“Your son will destroy everything your husband built.”
Margaret answered:
“Then he will destroy it honestly.”
Thomas slammed a folder onto the desk.
“You can stop him.”
“I won’t.”
“Victor will listen.”
Margaret laughed.
“Victor listens to anyone who flatters him.”
The recording ended.
Ethan stared at the screen.
His mother had known Thomas was dangerous.
Another file opened.
Margaret sat alone before the camera.
“If Ethan ever sees this, Thomas has probably done something unforgivable.”
She described suspicious company transfers.
Board manipulation.
Medical payments tied to Ethan’s father’s death.
Ethan’s heart stopped.
Thomas had been involved in his father’s cardiac event.
Margaret suspected poison.
She could not prove it.
She hid copies of financial records.
Then she died suddenly of an aneurysm six months later.
Natural causes, according to the records.
Ethan no longer trusted old records.
Sarah reopened both deaths.
Thomas’s conspiracy had not begun with Amelia.
It may have begun decades earlier.
Ethan sat in his father’s study until after midnight.
Amelia found him there.
“You’re thinking about every funeral.”
“Yes.”
“Your father.”
“My mother.”
“You.”
“Lily.”
Amelia sat beside him.
“Victor and Thomas stole enough years.”
“Don’t give them the next ones too.”
Ethan looked at her.
“How do I do that?”
“I don’t know.”
She smiled faintly.
“I’ve been locked in a medical room for seven years.”
“I’m not exactly an expert on normal.”
He laughed.
Neither of them knew what their marriage was anymore.
Technically, they were still married.
Emotionally, they were two people separated by seven stolen years.
Amelia had scars Ethan had never seen.
Fears he did not understand.
Ethan had built habits around grief.
Silence.
Control.
Distance.
They would not become a perfect family because the truth was exposed.
That would take work.
Amelia took his hand.
“One day at a time.”
He nodded.
Then the security alarm sounded.
Marcus spoke over the intercom.
“Mr. Blackwood.”
“We have movement at the north gate.”
Ethan stood immediately.
Police were still monitoring the property.
Who would approach openly?
The gate camera appeared on the study screen.
A woman stood outside.
Older.
Gray coat.
Hands raised.
Claire Mason.
The nurse who saved Lily.
She had left the hospital without permission.
Ethan went to the gate.
Claire looked terrified.
“I had to come.”
“Why?”
“Because Thomas told police the fire was Victor’s idea.”
“Yes.”
Claire shook her head.
“He lied.”
Ethan stared at her.
“Who started the fire?”
Claire looked toward the mansion.
Then whispered:
May you like
“Amelia did.”
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