Chapter 2 - THE BLOOD ON THE WHITE SILK
The medical room on the east side of Blackwood House smelled of antiseptic, leather, and rain.
Ivy sat on the edge of an examination table while Dr. Reed cleaned the wound across her shoulder.
Every touch burned.
She welcomed the pain because it kept her from thinking about Dorian.
Ronan stood near the window with his phone in one hand.
He had removed his wet coat.
Without it, he looked less like a myth and more like a tired man in a black suit who had come home to find his life already on fire.
"Theo is safe," Declan said through the speaker.
Ivy's eyes closed.
Her breath left her in a rush.
"Where?"
"At your neighbor's apartment."
Declan continued.
"Dorian never arrived to collect him."
The relief vanished.
Ivy gripped the edge of the table.
"His phone?"
"Off."
"Car?"
"We're looking."
Ronan's expression tightened.
"Traffic cameras."
"Already requested."
"Don't request."
Ronan's voice hardened.
"Get them."
"Understood."
The call ended.
Dr. Reed threaded a needle.
"This will hurt."
Ivy almost laughed.
"Tonight has been educational."
The doctor looked at her with quiet sympathy.
Ronan did not.
He looked angry.
Not at her.
Possibly at everything.
"Why didn't you tell anyone Vivienne had treated you badly before?"
Ivy looked at him.
"Who?"
"Me."
"You were in Zurich for eleven days."
"Before Zurich."
Ivy's mouth tightened.
"You want an honest answer?"
"Yes."
"I didn't think you would care."
The doctor's hands stopped for half a second.
Ronan's did not move.
"Why?"
Ivy glanced toward the door.
"Because this house taught me the rules."
"What rules?"
"People with money speak."
She looked directly at him.
"People without it survive."
Ronan's jaw shifted.
"That isn't my rule."
"It happened in your house."
The sentence landed between them.
Dr. Reed finished the first stitch.
Ronan looked away.
Ivy noticed that he did not defend himself again.
That earned him one small measure of respect.
Her phone vibrated.
Theo's name appeared.
She answered immediately.
"Theo?"
"Ivy, where are you?"
Her seventeen-year-old brother sounded terrified.
"I'm safe."
She forced the words out slowly.
"Are you with Mrs. Alvarez?"
"Yeah."
"Lock the door."
"I already did."
He inhaled shakily.
"Dorian called me at seven sixteen."
Ivy froze.
"What did he say?"
"He said he might be late."
"Anything else?"
Theo hesitated.
"He asked if Mom ever kept papers at the old apartment."
Ronan's head turned.
Ivy's pulse quickened.
"What papers?"
"I don't know."
Theo swallowed.
"He said somebody came to the garage asking questions about her."
Ivy stared at the wall.
Their mother had been dead for nine years.
"Who?"
"He didn't say."
"Theo, listen to me."
Her voice became firm.
"Do not leave Mrs. Alvarez's apartment for anyone except me or Dorian."
"What about police?"
Ivy glanced at Ronan.
"Not even police unless I call you first."
Ronan lifted an eyebrow.
She ignored him.
"Okay," Theo whispered.
"I love you."
"Love you too."
The call ended.
Ronan crossed the room.
"What did your mother do?"
Ivy frowned.
"She cleaned offices."
"For whom?"
"Different companies."
"Blackwood companies?"
Ivy stared at him.
"Why would you ask that?"
Ronan did not answer.
That was answer enough.
"Ronan."
He walked to a locked cabinet and poured water into a glass.
"My father's records are incomplete."
"What does that have to do with my mother?"
He handed her the water.
Ivy did not take it.
"Say it."
Ronan lowered the glass.
"Lancaster."
He spoke the name slowly.
"I've heard it before."
Ivy's skin went cold.
"Where?"
"I don't remember."
"That's convenient."
"It's true."
Ronan's frustration appeared for the first time.
"My father employed thousands of people through legitimate companies and dozens more through operations I spent years dismantling after his death."
"Operations."
Ivy laughed bitterly.
"That's a polite word."
"I didn't say they were polite."
Dr. Reed tied the final stitch.
"Done."
Ivy barely heard him.
"Was my mother involved with your father?"
Ronan looked at her.
"I don't know."
"Did he hurt her?"
"I don't know."
"Did he have her killed?"
Dr. Reed went still.
Ronan's face changed.
"How did she die?"
"Car accident."
"Where?"
"Interstate 9."
"When?"
"Nine years ago."
Ronan's eyes narrowed.
"What month?"
Ivy felt something tighten inside her.
"October."
"The date?"
"October seventeenth."
Ronan set the untouched water glass on the counter.
"My mother died October eighteenth."
Ivy stopped breathing.
She knew Eleanor Blackwood had died in a private plane crash.
Everyone in the city knew.
The newspapers had called it the end of an era.
"That doesn't mean anything."
"Maybe not."
Ronan's tone said he did not believe that.
The door opened.
Declan entered holding a tablet.
His face told Ivy the news was bad before he spoke.
"We found Dorian's car."
Ivy stood too fast.
Pain shot through her shoulder.
"Where?"
"North service road outside the estate."
"Is he there?"
Declan shook his head.
"No."
Ivy moved toward the door.
Ronan blocked her.
"You're injured."
"Move."
"Ivy."
"Move."
Their eyes locked.
Ronan stepped aside.
They left the medical room together.
The mansion had changed while Ivy was being stitched.
Guests were separated into small groups under guard.
Phones had been collected.
Staff whispered near the kitchens.
Vivienne stood at the far end of the corridor beside Augustus.
She had changed nothing about her appearance except one detail.
The engagement ring was gone.
The pale mark around her finger looked almost indecent.
As Ivy passed, Vivienne smiled.
"I hope your brother is all right."
Ivy stopped.
Ronan stopped with her.
"What did you say?"
Vivienne tilted her head.
"I said I hope he's all right."
"Nobody told you he was missing."
Silence spread down the hallway.
Augustus's eyes sharpened.
Vivienne blinked once.
"Everyone is talking."
"Nobody in the ballroom knew," Ivy said.
Vivienne's smile disappeared.
Ronan stepped between them.
"Declan."
"Sir."
"Vivienne does not leave this property."
Her head snapped toward him.
"You are detaining me?"
"I'm asking you to stay."
Ronan's expression was almost gentle.
"Don't make me use a less pleasant word."
Augustus moved closer.
"Be careful."
Ronan looked at him.
"You keep saying that."
"Because you keep forgetting what holds your empire together."
Ronan's eyes went flat.
"If my empire needs your daughter to beat servants in public, perhaps it deserves to collapse."
Augustus smiled faintly.
"You think this is about my daughter."
Ivy felt the warning inside the sentence.
So did Ronan.
But neither answered.
Ten minutes later, they stood beside Dorian's abandoned car.
Rain fell steadily through the black trees beyond the estate wall.
The driver's door was open.
The headlights were still on.
A paper bag containing Theo's favorite fried chicken sat upright on the passenger floor.
Ivy saw it and nearly broke.
Dorian had remembered dinner.
That ordinary fact was worse than anything else.
She approached the car.
Declan caught her arm gently.
"Don't touch anything."
Ivy looked inside.
There was blood on the driver's seat.
Not much.
Enough.
Her stomach turned.
Ronan stood on the other side of the car.
His face had become frighteningly still.
A security officer approached Declan.
"We found this twenty yards back."
He held up a small plastic evidence bag.
Inside was Dorian's Blackwood Garage employee badge.
Ivy stared.
"Why does he have that?"
Ronan looked at her.
"Dorian works for Blackwood Automotive?"
"No."
Her confusion sharpened into fear.
"He works at Pearson Auto on Ninth Street."
Declan turned the badge over.
"This was issued six days ago."
Ronan took the bag.
The photo was Dorian's.
The employee number was real.
"Someone created him a credential," Ronan said.
"Why?" Ivy asked.
No one answered.
A flash of white beneath the driver's seat caught her eye.
She pointed.
"There."
Declan crouched and used gloves to retrieve it.
It was a folded napkin.
White linen.
Blackwood crest embroidered in black thread.
Ivy recognized it immediately.
It came from the ballroom.
On the inside, someone had written five words in dark ink.
ASK HER ABOUT CELESTE LANCASTER.
Ivy's knees weakened.
Ronan caught her before she hit the car.
"Celeste was my mother."
Her voice shook.
Ronan looked at the message.
Then at the mansion glowing through the rain behind them.
"Then whoever took Dorian didn't choose you tonight by accident."
Ivy pulled away from him.
"You knew my name."
"I told you I remembered it."
"No."
She pointed at him.
"You reacted before I said how she died."
Ronan's face tightened.
"Because Interstate 9 was connected to my mother's investigation."
Ivy stared at him.
"What investigation?"
He was silent.
"Ronan."
"My mother believed my father and Augustus Hale were moving money through shell companies."
The rain struck the roof of the car.
"She spent the last year of her life trying to prove it."
Ivy could barely hear her own voice.
"And my mother?"
"I don't know."
"Stop saying that."
"I don't know."
This time he shouted.
The guards looked away.
Ronan lowered his voice.
"But I am going to find out."
Ivy laughed without humor.
"While my brother is missing?"
"At the same time."
"Your family may have killed my mother."
"Yes."
The answer shocked her.
Ronan did not soften it.
"And if they did, I will put the proof in your hands myself."
Ivy looked at the blood on the seat.
"What if the proof destroys you?"
Ronan looked toward Blackwood House.
"Then it destroys me."
A phone rang.
Declan answered.
His expression changed.
"Say that again."
He listened.
Then he looked at Ronan.
"Traffic camera caught Dorian's car at 7:29."
"Who was driving?"
"Dorian."
"Passenger?"
Declan turned the screen toward them.
The image was grainy.
But the man in the passenger seat was unmistakable.
Ivy had seen him less than an hour earlier.
He had stood beside Augustus Hale throughout the party.
Augustus's event manager.
The same man Mia said had ordered her tray route.
Ronan stared at the image.
"Bring him to me."
Declan did not move.
"We can't."
Ronan looked at him.
"Why?"
"He's gone."
"From the ballroom?"
"He never entered after the camera shutdown."
Declan's voice became quieter.
"According to the logs, he used Dorian's newly issued Blackwood credential to leave through the north gate eleven minutes before you arrived."
Ivy looked at the abandoned car.
Someone had not only taken her brother.
May you like
They had used Blackwood systems to do it.
And whoever planned it had known exactly when Ronan would come home.
