Chapter 2 - The Locked Nursery
Victor carried Ethan upstairs himself.
Lily followed slowly.
Maria remained close behind.
Serena followed them despite Victor ordering her to stay downstairs.
The nursery door was locked.
Victor frowned.
“Why is this locked?”
Lily stared at Serena.
“I didn’t lock it.”
Serena shrugged.
“Maybe the cleaning staff did.”
Victor entered the code.
Nothing happened.
He tried again.
Access denied.
His own nursery had been locked against him.
Victor called his head of security.
“Open this door.”
Within minutes, the electronic lock was overridden.
Victor stepped inside.
Everything looked perfect.
Stuffed animals sat neatly on white shelves.
A wooden train rested beneath the window.
Ethan’s crib was freshly made.
Then Lily walked toward the changing table.
She pulled out the bottom drawer.
Empty.
Her face fell.
“No.”
“What was there?”
“A notebook.”
Serena gave a small laugh.
“Convenient.”
Lily ignored her.
“I documented every incident.”
Victor searched the drawer.
Nothing.
Then Maria noticed a torn piece of blue paper caught behind the cabinet.
Lily picked it up.
Her handwriting was visible.
June 17.
Camera offline from 2:12 p.m. to 3:06 p.m.
Ethan crying when I returned.
Small mark on right wrist.
Victor read it twice.
“What happened June seventeenth?”
Lily looked at Serena.
“She told me to take the afternoon off.”
Serena rolled her eyes.
“And?”
“When I returned, Ethan had been crying for so long his voice was hoarse.”
Victor’s jaw tightened.
Serena crossed her arms.
“You are listening to a nanny who wants money.”
Victor turned toward the wall camera.
“Who disabled that camera?”
Nobody answered.
His security chief, Marcus Reed, examined the system.
“The unit itself wasn’t damaged.”
“Then why was it offline?”
Marcus opened the diagnostic history.
Someone had manually disabled the camera using administrator credentials.
Victor stared at the screen.
“What credentials?”
“Yours.”
Everyone went silent.
Serena immediately pointed toward Lily.
“There.”
“That proves it.”
“She stole your password.”
Marcus shook his head.
“That wouldn’t explain this.”
He scrolled further.
The nursery camera had been disabled eleven times during the previous seven weeks.
Always while Victor was away.
Always while Serena was inside the mansion.
Victor felt something cold settle in his chest.
Then Marcus stopped scrolling.
“There’s another problem.”
“What?”
“The commands didn’t come from the nursery.”
Victor leaned closer.
“Where did they come from?”
Marcus looked uncomfortable.
“Your private office.”
Only three other people regularly entered that room.
Victor.
May you like
His chief of staff.
And his younger brother Adrian.
