Chapter 8 - The Night The Mansion Went Dark.
.Nick left the residence before anyone could stop him.
Elena found him sitting in his car with both hands locked around the steering wheel.
He did not look at her.
"My whole name is a lie."
Elena stood outside the window with Lily in her arms.
"My whole childhood was a lie."
Nick finally looked at her.
"I am sorry."
Elena's expression remained still.
"For which part?"
He had no answer large enough.
Richard arranged for Mara to move temporarily to a private medical apartment with independent staff.
Vivian objected until Richard threatened to freeze every household account she controlled.
That evening, the family returned to the mansion because Richard wanted access to old corporate archives stored in his study.
Adrian had managed Blackwood legal affairs during the years Mara disappeared.
If Vivian had paid institutions or forged guardianship documents, the proof might be buried there.
Elena did not want to enter the house again.
She did it for Mara.
At 9:17 p.m., every light in the mansion went out.
The backup generator did not start.
A door slammed upstairs.
Elena's first thought was Lily.
She rushed toward the nursery guest room where the baby had been sleeping under a nanny's care.
The nanny was gone.
The crib was empty.
Elena screamed Nick's name.
He ran from the hall carrying a flashlight.
"What happened?"
"Lily is gone."
His face changed instantly.
For the first time since the driveway, his fear matched hers.
They searched separate wings.
Richard called security, but the internal phones were dead.
Vivian claimed she had been in her bedroom.
Adrian was nowhere to be found.
Elena heard a baby cry from below the main staircase.
She ran toward the sound.
The cry came again from the old wine cellar.
Nick reached the door first.
It was locked from the outside.
He broke the latch with a fireplace poker.
Inside, Lily lay safely in her portable bassinet beside a stack of archive boxes.
The nanny was unconscious on the floor.
She was breathing.
Someone had struck her from behind.
Elena lifted Lily and sobbed into the blanket.
Nick checked the nanny's pulse.
Then his flashlight landed on one open archive box.
Several files had been removed.
A single folder remained on top.
It was labeled NICHOLAS - BIRTH / CONFIDENTIAL.
Nick opened it.
Inside was a copy of his original hospital birth certificate.
The father line was blank.
A second page contained an amended certificate filed six weeks later naming Richard Blackwood.
The amendment had been notarized by Adrian Vale.
Nick stared at the signature.
Footsteps sounded at the cellar entrance.
Adrian stood there holding a flashlight.
Nick lunged at him.
Elena shouted for him to stop.
Adrian raised both hands.
"I did not take the baby."
"Then who did?"
A voice came from behind him.
"I did."
Vivian stepped into the light.
Elena tightened her hold on Lily.
Vivian looked directly at her.
"I needed you to come down here and find that file before Richard destroyed it."
Richard appeared behind her.
"Why would I destroy it?"
May you like
Vivian smiled faintly.
"Because the file proves something even you do not know."
