Chapter 2 - SOMEONE WAS STILL UPSTAIRS“TAKE LILY OUTSIDE. NOW.”
Michael pushed his daughter toward Claire as footsteps crossed the dark second-floor hallway. Claire grabbed Lily’s hand, but the child refused to move.
“No!” Lily whispered desperately. “There’s something else on the video.”
Michael looked at her, but before he could ask what she meant, a door slammed upstairs.
Then silence.
A terrifying silence.
Michael reached for his phone and activated the flashlight. Its narrow beam swept across the marble floor, the glass staircase, and finally the upper landing. Nobody stood there.
Yet one bedroom door was slowly moving.
The nursery.
Michael’s stomach tightened.
“Stay behind me.”
He climbed the staircase carefully. Claire followed despite his command to leave, keeping Lily behind her. Every step produced a soft echo through the powerless mansion. When Michael reached the nursery, he pushed the door open.
Empty.
The crib stood untouched.
Curtains moved beside an open balcony door.
Someone had escaped seconds earlier.
Michael rushed outside and looked toward the garden. A dark figure crossed behind the hedges and disappeared toward the service gate.
“Daniel!” Michael shouted.
No response.
Claire suddenly noticed something beside the crib.
A black leather folder.
Michael opened it.
Inside were copies of financial documents bearing his signature.
Except he had never signed them.
Transfers totaling almost six million dollars had been authorized from one of his companies to a shell corporation called North Crown Holdings. Michael stared at the dates. Every transaction occurred while Vanessa had access to his home office.
“This isn’t about Claire,” he said slowly.
Claire shook her head.
“It never was.”
She finally told him what had happened before he arrived. Claire had accidentally overheard Vanessa arguing with Daniel inside the study. She heard Daniel say Michael would discover the missing money during Monday’s audit.
Vanessa answered with four chilling words:
“Then Claire takes the blame.”
Michael looked toward the staircase.
That explained the staged confrontation.
Vanessa had intended to make Claire appear unstable, violent, perhaps even dangerous around Lily. If Michael fired her immediately, the only household employee who had overheard them would disappear before investigators arrived.
But Lily suddenly unlocked her phone again.
“There’s more.”
She dragged the video backward.
Five minutes before Claire entered the staircase hallway, Vanessa and Daniel appeared together.
Daniel handed Vanessa something.
A small black device.
Michael enlarged the image.
His expression changed.
It was his encrypted security key—the device required to authorize transfers from his corporate reserve account.
Michael looked toward the open balcony.
“If Daniel has my key…”
His phone suddenly vibrated.
One text message appeared from an unknown number.
DON’T CALL THE POLICE.
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A second message followed.
IF YOU WANT YOUR WIFE ALIVE, COME TO THE GARAGE ALONE.
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