Chapter 36 The Evidence

Chapter 36 The Evidence
I stepped out of Serena’s hospital room and felt the weight of the world drop on my shoulders again. Inside that room, I had to be the rock. I had to be the husband who had everything under control. 

I looked at my hands. They were steady, but my heart was beating fast.  

"Sir?"  

I looked up. Mark, my head of security, was standing a there. He was a big man, a former soldier who did not talk much. He was exactly what I needed right now.  

"Is the floor secure?" I asked.  

"Two men at the elevators, one at the stairwell, and one dressed as a doctor near the NICU," Mark reported.

"Good," I said. "I’m going to the lounge. I have work to do. 

I walked into the small, private waiting area. I sat down at a mahogany table and pulled my laptop from my bag. My hands felt cold as I reached into my pocket and pulled out the USB drive.  

Louise. I still could not believe it. She had been Lily’s accomplice for years. She had helped Lily ruin lives, yet at the last second, she had changed her mind. She had seen Serena bleeding in that warehouse and something in her had snapped.  

I plugged the drive into the port. A folder popped up on the screen. It was labeled simply: L.V. - Insurance.  

I opened the folder. My eyes widened at the amount of data. There were hundreds of PDFs, spreadsheets, and scanned photos of handwritten ledgers. I did not know where to start, so I started with the folder marked Accounts.  

As I scrolled through the bank statements, I felt sick. Lily had been smarter than I thought. She had not just been spending the family money on jewelry and clothes. She had been sending millions of dollars out of our construction company for three years.  

She used fake companies. She would create a fake company called "Vance Steel Supplies," send an invoice to our main office for five hundred thousand dollars, and then approve the payment herself. The money would go into an account in the Cayman Islands, and from there, it disappeared into a web of smaller accounts.  

But Louise had tracked the final destination.  

I opened a spreadsheet titled The Shadow Path. The money was not just sitting in a bank. It was being used to buy property in countries that do not have extradition treaties with our government.  

"She was planning her escape for years," I realized.  

I kept clicking. I found a subfolder titled The Help.  

This was the list of people she had paid off. I saw names of local police officers, a city inspector, and even one of my own junior accountants. She had built a cage around me, and I had not even noticed.  

Then, I found the most important file. It was an audio recording.  

I put on my headphones and pressed play. The sound was grainy, recorded in a moving car.  

"Is it done?" Lily’s voice was unmistakable.  

"We have the girl," a man’s voice replied. "She’s at the docks. What do you want us to do if she starts crying for help?"  

"I don't care what you do to her," Lily said. "Just make sure she stays quiet until Edward pays. After the money hits the account, you can leave her there. If she survives the night, fine. If she doesn't, that’s one less problem for me to deal with."  

"And the baby?" the man asked.  

There was a long pause. I held my breath, my fingers gripping the edge of the table so hard they turned white.  

"The baby is a Vance," Lily said. "But he’s a Vance I do not need. Do whatever is easiest. Just don't let it interfere with the schedule."  

I slammed the laptop shut. I had to stand up and walk around the room to keep from screaming. She had talked about my son like he was trash. Like he was a mistake to be erased.

"Sir? Is everything okay?" Mark asked, stepping into the room.  

"I’m fine," I lied. I looked at the laptop. "Mark, I need you to get Detective Miller on the phone. Tell him I have the evidence. I have the audio. I have the bank accounts. I want a global warrant. I want her face on every news screen from here to Singapore."  

"I'll handle it," Mark said. He hesitated. "There’s something else. We tracked the jet she used. It landed in Mexico, but it was empty. She switched planes. We think she’s heading for Europe."  

"I don't care where she goes," I said. "I will spend every cent I have to find her. I want her to feel what Serena felt.”

I sat back down and opened the laptop again. There was one more file at the bottom of the list. It was a photo.  

I clicked it. It was a picture of me and Serena from our wedding day. It had been taken from a distance, likely by a private investigator. 

I reached for my phone and called my lawyer.  

"Marcus," I said when he answered. "I’m changing my will. Everything, the house, the company, the trusts, it all goes to Serena and Arthur. Effective immediately. And I want you to start the process of selling the Vance estate. Serena wants to move, and she’s right. We’re leaving the past behind."  

"Edward, that’s a lot of assets to move quickly," Marcus said. "You’ll lose millions in taxes."  

"I don't care about the millions," I said. "I want a clean slate. 

I spent the next four hours working with the FBI agents who arrived at the hospital. I showed them the accounts. I played them the audio. I watched their faces turn from professional boredom to real shock. Even for them, the coldness of Lily’s voice was hard to hear.  

By the time the sun began to set, my eyes were burning from the screen. I felt exhausted, but for the first time in days, I felt like I was winning.  

I walked back to Serena’s room. The hallway was quiet. I saw the security guard Mark had mentioned, sitting on a bench reading a magazine. He gave me a tiny nod.  

I slipped into the room. Serena was asleep. She looked so peaceful, her hair spread out across the pillow. She looked like an angel who had survived hell.  

I sat in the chair beside her and watched her breathe. I knew Lily was still out there. I knew the danger was not fully gone. But looking at Serena, I knew I would do it all again. I would lose every dollar, every building, and every bit of my reputation to keep her and Arthur safe.  

"I’ve got you," I whispered.

I closed my eyes for a moment, letting the hum of the hospital machines lull me into a restless sleep. I dreamt of fire, of Lily’s money and her secrets burning until there was nothing left but ash. And in the middle of the ash, Serena and I were standing, holding a little boy who was finally home.