Chapter 2 - Serena’s Last Secret
Emma stopped breathing.
Nobody in the Hale mansion called her by her first name except staff.
Nobody outside the room should even have known she was there.
Preston raised one finger.
Silence.
Dominic moved beside the door.
Preston positioned himself between Oliver and whoever stood outside.
“Who is it?”
No answer.
Then came another whisper.
“Emma Carter.”
Emma went pale.
“I know that voice.”
Preston looked at her.
“Who?”
Before she answered, Oliver climbed from the sofa and hid behind her skirt.
The door opened.
A woman in her late fifties stood there wearing a black coat.
Preston recognized her.
“Nurse Bennett.”
Margaret Bennett had worked the oncology floor the night Serena died.
She looked twenty years older than Preston remembered.
Her eyes found Oliver.
She began crying.
“I’m sorry.”
Preston’s hand lowered.
“Sorry for what?”
Margaret looked at Emma.
Then at the matching lockets.
“You found each other.”
Emma’s voice trembled.
“You knew my mother?”
Margaret nodded.
“Grace was Serena’s older sister.”
The room seemed to tilt.
Emma stared at her.
“No.”
“Yes.”
“My mother never had a sister.”
“She did.”
Preston looked at Emma.
That made Emma Serena’s niece.
Oliver’s cousin.
But it did not explain the song.
Or the hospital.
Or why Serena had hidden Grace’s name inside a locket.
Margaret stepped inside.
“Grace and Serena were separated when their parents died. Grace was eighteen. Serena was sixteen. Different relatives took them in. They stopped speaking after an argument neither one ever really recovered from.”
“What argument?” Emma asked.
Margaret looked toward Preston.
“Serena married him.”
Preston said nothing.
Margaret continued.
“Grace believed Serena was entering a world she wouldn’t survive.”
Emma looked at Preston.
“She hated you?”
“She feared what came with him.”
That distinction hurt more than Preston expected.
“Then why didn’t Serena tell me?”
“She tried.”
Margaret removed an envelope from her coat.
“But someone made sure she couldn’t.”
Preston’s expression hardened.
“Who?”
Margaret looked toward Oliver.
“Not in front of him.”
Oliver understood.
His small hand tightened around Emma’s.
Preston called the nanny.
Oliver refused to go.
Eventually Emma crouched.
“I’ll stay here.”
Oliver studied her.
“Promise?”
The word was barely audible.
Everyone froze.
Emma’s eyes filled.
“I promise.”
Oliver went with the nanny.
The moment the door closed, Preston turned to Margaret.
“Talk.”
Margaret explained that Serena had discovered irregularities during her final hospitalization.
Her medication had been changed.
Records had disappeared.
A doctor she had never met began signing orders.
Grace had come secretly to see her.
The sisters reconciled.
Serena feared someone close to Preston was using her illness to remove her faster than nature intended.
Emma covered her mouth.
“You’re saying she was murdered?”
“I’m saying Serena believed someone was interfering with her treatment.”
Preston became frighteningly still.
“Names.”
“I never knew.”
“Then why come now?”
“Because someone tried to kill me yesterday.”
She pulled back her sleeve.
Bruises covered her wrist.
Dominic swore.
Margaret handed Preston the envelope.
“Serena gave me this. She told me if anything happened to her, I should find Grace.”
“Why didn’t you?”
“I did.”
Emma looked up.
“What?”
“Your mother refused to involve you. She said whoever had hurt Serena would eventually come for anyone who knew.”
Emma’s eyes filled.
“That’s why we kept moving.”
Margaret nodded.
“Grace spent the rest of her life trying to prove what happened.”
Preston opened the envelope.
Inside was a photograph of a hospital corridor.
A man stood near Serena’s room.
His face was turned away.
But Preston recognized the ring on his hand.
A Hale family signet ring.
Only three existed.
Preston owned one.
His father had owned another.
The third belonged to his younger brother.
Nathan.
Nathan Hale had died eighteen months after Serena.
At least that was what Preston had been told.
He stared at the photograph.
“What was Nathan doing there?”
Dominic said nothing.
That silence answered too much.
Preston looked at him.
“You knew.”
“Not this.”
“But something.”
Dominic’s jaw tightened.
“After Serena died, Nathan disappeared for three days.”
“And?”
“When he returned, he told me never to ask where he’d been.”
Preston approached him.
“You waited four years to mention this?”
“He was your brother.”
“So was I.”
The words landed hard.
Margaret interrupted.
“Preston.”
She pointed toward the photograph.
“Look at the reflection.”
A glass panel beside Serena’s hospital room reflected another figure.
Small.
A child.
Oliver.
Preston’s stomach dropped.
His son had seen Nathan outside Serena’s room.
Perhaps he had seen more.
Emma entered quietly after checking on Oliver.
Preston handed her the photograph.
She studied it.
“My mother had this.”
Everyone turned.
“What?”
“She kept photographs in a box beneath her bed. I remember this corridor.”
“Where is the box?”
Emma hesitated.
“In a storage locker.”
Preston grabbed his coat.
“We’re going.”
They reached the storage facility forty minutes later.
Emma unlocked Unit 317.
Boxes filled the cramped space.
She found Grace’s belongings near the back.
Letters.
Photographs.
Medical documents.
Then Preston noticed an old cassette recorder.
A label had been taped across it.
SERENA.
Emma pressed play.
Static.
Then Grace Carter’s voice filled the storage unit.
“If Emma ever hears this, then I failed to keep her away from the Hales.”
Emma closed her eyes.
Grace continued.
“Serena called me three nights before she died. She said Nathan discovered what she had found.”
Preston leaned closer.
“She was terrified. Not of Nathan. For Nathan.”
The recording crackled.
“She said Nathan had learned who was really stealing from Preston’s organization and using hospital charities to move money.”
Dominic looked sharply at Preston.
Then Grace spoke the name.
“Victor Lang.”
Preston’s blood chilled.
Victor had been Preston’s mentor.
His father’s closest friend.
The man who had helped Preston build everything after his father died.
The man currently serving as chairman of Serena’s charity foundation.
Emma whispered, “Is he at the mansion?”
Preston looked at his watch.
Victor had stayed after the gala.
He had said he needed to review foundation accounts.
Preston reached for his phone.
Before he could call security, it rang.
The mansion.
He answered.
His nanny was crying.
“Mr. Hale, Oliver is gone.”
Preston’s face emptied.
“What?”
“The bedroom window was open.”
Emma grabbed his arm.
Then the nanny said something that made Preston stop breathing.
“There’s a note on his bed.”
Preston tightened his grip on the phone.
“What does it say?”
May you like
The nanny sobbed.
“Bring Emma Carter to the old hospital entrance. Come alone.”
