Chapter 5 - Someone Inside the House
Daniel reached the hallway first.
Two guards were already running toward the east wing.
Owen appeared from the staircase.
“What happened?”
“You tell me.”
Daniel’s voice was sharp.
“The power failed and someone entered my father’s study.”
Owen looked startled.
“That wing is restricted.”
“Apparently not.”
Emily remained beside Margaret.
The older woman’s hands were shaking.
Daniel ordered every employee and guest still inside the mansion accounted for.
Within fifteen minutes, security confirmed something unsettling.
No outsider had entered through the gates.
No doors had been forced.
No windows were open.
Whoever stole Robert’s letter was already inside.
Daniel pulled Owen aside.
“Show me the hallway footage.”
Owen’s face tightened.
“The system went down with the electricity.”
“Backup cameras?”
“Also down.”
Daniel stared at him.
“All of them?”
“It looks like a surge.”
Emily stepped closer.
“What about the camera in the foyer?”
Owen nodded.
“Everything.”
Emily thought of Vanessa planting the necklace.
That recording had been crystal clear.
Now, minutes after the discovery of documents implicating Vanessa’s father, every camera had stopped simultaneously.
Emily looked at Owen.
“You knew what was in the photograph Daniel received.”
Owen’s expression changed.
“I saw a woman outside the mansion.”
“You saw me.”
“Yes.”
“Before Daniel enlarged it.”
Silence.
Daniel turned toward him.
“Give me your phone.”
Owen laughed nervously.
“Daniel, come on.”
“Your phone.”
Owen reached into his jacket.
Then instead of handing it over, he ran.
He made it six steps.
Two guards caught him before he reached the service corridor.
The phone hit the marble floor.
Daniel picked it up.
The lock screen displayed several notifications.
One came from Vanessa.
Did you get the letter?
Margaret closed her eyes.
Emily felt cold all over.
Owen stopped struggling.
Daniel unlocked the phone using the security override code registered to company devices.
A chain of messages appeared.
Vanessa had been communicating with Owen for months.
There were photographs of Emily.
Copies of her employment paperwork.
Records of places she had visited.
Even photographs taken outside her apartment.
Emily stared at the screen.
“You were watching me.”
Owen refused to answer.
Daniel kept scrolling.
Then he found something worse.
A message from Vanessa dated six months earlier.
She found Anna’s box.
Another followed.
If Emily gets into Robert’s study before the wedding, everything changes.
Daniel looked at Owen.
“What wedding?”
Owen smiled bitterly.
“Yours.”
Daniel’s eyes narrowed.
Owen looked at Emily.
“You still don’t understand.”
“Understand what?”
“The paternity test isn’t the dangerous document.”
Emily felt her stomach drop.
Owen nodded toward Robert Mercer’s desk.
“There was another paper in that compartment.”
Daniel turned.
Underneath the remaining bank records was a sealed envelope they had overlooked.
May you like
Across the front, Robert had written three words.
For my daughter.
