Chapter 13 - THE RUNWAY -
Police vehicles surrounded the private airfield before Vivian’s plane could take off.
I watched from behind the security barrier as officers ordered the pilot to shut down the engines.
The cabin door remained closed.
For several minutes, nothing happened.
Then my mother appeared at the top of the stairs.
She wore a dark coat and carried a small leather case.
Even at the edge of arrest, she looked composed.
She descended slowly.
An officer reached for the case.
Vivian pulled it away.
“It contains personal documents.”
The officer took it anyway.
Inside were three passports, bundles of cash, and a sealed envelope bearing my father’s law firm’s name.
Nathan requested that the envelope be preserved as evidence.
My mother looked at me across the runway.
“You did this.”
“You did.”
“I protected everything your father built.”
“You stole from it.”
“I kept weak people from destroying it.”
“Elena is not weak.”
Vivian smiled faintly.
“She was on her knees when you found her.”
The cruelty in her voice erased the last piece of hope I had carried.
Part of me had still wanted an explanation.
I had wanted to believe that fear, grief, or desperation had changed her.
Instead, I finally understood that control had always been the only thing she loved.
“You will never see my wife or my son again.”
Her expression shifted.
“Your son belongs to the Blackwood family.”
“No.”
I stepped closer.
“He belongs to himself.”
Officers placed Vivian in handcuffs.
She did not resist.
As they led her away, she turned toward me.
“Ask your wife why she never told you about the letter from Arthur.”
I froze.
“What letter?”
Vivian smiled.
Then she entered the police vehicle.
At the hospital, Elena was sleeping.
I waited until she woke before repeating my mother’s words.
Her face changed.
“There was a letter.”
“From my father?”
“I found it in the nursery six months ago.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Your mother caught me reading it.”
“What did it say?”
“I only read the first page.”
Elena looked ashamed.
“She said Arthur had left instructions for me.”
“What instructions?”
“That I should never allow our child to grow up in Blackwood Manor.”
“Where is the letter now?”
“She took it.”
I remembered the sealed envelope inside my mother’s case.
Nathan called the district attorney.
The envelope was opened in the presence of investigators.
Inside was not one letter.
There were three.
The first was addressed to me.
May you like
The second was addressed to Elena.
The third was addressed to a child who had not yet been born.
