Chapter 9 - The Missing Twenty-Two Minutes
Victor read Daniel’s message again.
You’re looking at the wrong Blackwood.
Naomi stood across from him.
“What does that mean?”
Victor did not know.
Adrian was the obvious answer.
But Daniel had known Victor for more than a decade.
If he wanted to expose Adrian, why disappear?
Marcus entered with a laptop.
“The security company found something.”
Victor immediately looked up.
“When Serena disabled the mansion cameras, she shut down the main cloud recording.”
“Yes.”
“But she missed a local cache inside the nursery hub.”
Victor moved closer.
“How much survived?”
“Twenty-two minutes.”
The video was damaged.
Most frames were frozen.
The audio was incomplete.
But it captured Serena entering Ethan’s room one week earlier.
Lily was not home.
Maria appeared briefly in the doorway.
Serena ordered her out.
Then the image froze.
For almost a minute, there was only audio.
Ethan crying.
Serena speaking angrily.
Then a second adult voice.
Male.
Victor leaned closer.
The voice was distorted.
But several words were clear.
“One more incident.”
Then Serena responded.
“And the trust activates?”
The man answered.
“If Victor looks negligent enough.”
Victor felt the air leave his lungs.
Naomi replayed it.
Again.
And again.
The male voice was too damaged to identify.
But the conspiracy was real.
Serena had not invented the trust explanation.
Someone had been directing her.
Victor immediately called Maria.
No answer.
He called again.
Nothing.
Marcus sent a guard to the staff wing.
Minutes later, he returned carrying Maria’s phone.
It had been left on her bed.
Maria was gone.
Lily turned pale.
“She wouldn’t leave Ethan.”
Victor searched the room himself.
Maria’s suitcase remained beneath the bed.
Her coat hung in the closet.
She had not planned to leave.
Then Lily noticed a folded paper on the nightstand.
Victor opened it.
Three words were written inside.
They have Mateo.
Maria’s teenage son.
Victor immediately ordered Marcus to locate him.
Before Marcus could leave, another message arrived from an unknown number.
It contained a photograph.
Maria stood beside a dark sedan.
She looked terrified.
May you like
Behind her was Daniel Cross.
And Daniel was pointing directly toward the camera.
