Chapter 2 - SEVENTEEN MISSING HOURS
Daniel stared at the computer.
“That’s impossible.”
Richard stood behind him.
“What?”
Daniel enlarged the access records.
“Vanessa’s code was used to erase footage from your office.”
Nathan folded his arms.
“When?”
“Three weeks ago.”
“Was she here?”
Daniel shook his head.
“She was in Chicago.”
Richard’s expression changed.
He remembered the trip.
Vanessa had attended a charity event with Nathan.
Photographs had appeared online all weekend.
Emily remained near the doorway.
Her cheek still burned.
But nobody was thinking about the slap anymore.
Richard leaned closer to the screen.
“What exactly was deleted?”
“Seventeen hours.”
“Can you recover it?”
“Maybe.”
Daniel began typing.
“But whoever did this understood the system.”
Nathan looked toward the front door.
“You think Vanessa gave someone her code?”
Daniel didn’t answer.
He didn’t need to.
Richard turned toward Emily.
“What were you cleaning in my office two nights ago?”
“The bookshelves.”
“Did you see anything unusual?”
Emily thought carefully.
“No.”
Then she remembered.
“Actually…”
Nathan looked at her.
“What?”
“Your desk drawer was open.”
Richard frowned.
“I always lock that drawer.”
“I know.”
Emily had cleaned the office hundreds of times.
Richard’s desk was almost obsessively organized.
The bottom drawer was always locked.
“That night it was open about an inch.”
Richard immediately walked upstairs.
Everyone followed.
Inside the office, he went straight to the desk.
He opened the drawer.
Empty.
His face changed.
Nathan noticed.
“What was inside?”
Richard didn’t answer immediately.
“Dad?”
“A contract.”
“What contract?”
Richard looked toward Emily and Daniel.
Then back at Nathan.
“The family trust.”
Nathan went still.
Emily didn’t understand.
Daniel did.
“That document contains ownership allocations.”
Richard nodded.
“And voting rights.”
Nathan stared at him.
“Why would Vanessa want it?”
Richard closed the drawer.
“She wouldn’t.”
“Then who would?”
Richard looked at his son.
“Someone who expects to become family.”
Nobody spoke.
Daniel suddenly turned toward his computer.
“I’m checking every access log.”
For the next twenty minutes, the mansion became a crime scene.
Doors were locked.
Servers were copied.
Staff members were told not to leave.
Emily sat quietly in the kitchen with an ice pack pressed against her cheek.
She should have gone home.
Instead, she kept thinking about Vanessa’s warning.
You have no idea what you just started.
Maria, the mansion’s cook, sat beside her.
“You should press charges.”
Emily stared at the ice.
“I might.”
“Might?”
Maria leaned closer.
“She hit you and tried to have you arrested.”
“I know.”
“Then why are you hesitating?”
Emily looked toward the hallway.
“Because I don’t think the necklace was about getting me arrested.”
Maria frowned.
“What else would it be about?”
“Getting me out of this house.”
“Why?”
Emily had no answer.
Then Daniel appeared.
“Emily.”
She stood.
“What happened?”
“We found something.”
He led her back upstairs.
Richard and Nathan were waiting.
On the monitor was a still image from a hallway camera.
The timestamp showed 2:13 a.m.
A man wearing a maintenance uniform was entering Richard’s office.
Emily recognized him immediately.
“That’s not one of our maintenance workers.”
Daniel nodded.
“We know.”
Nathan leaned forward.
“Can you identify him?”
Emily studied the image.
The cap covered most of his face.
But something was visible beneath his left ear.
A tattoo.
Three small black lines.
Emily’s stomach dropped.
“I’ve seen him.”
Richard turned.
“Where?”
“Talking to Vanessa.”
“When?”
“About a month ago.”
Nathan’s voice sharpened.
“Where?”
“Behind the guesthouse.”
Richard looked at Daniel.
“Find him.”
Daniel enlarged the image.
Then he went silent.
“What?”
Daniel pointed toward the man’s wrist.
A metal watch reflected the hallway light.
“I know that watch.”
Nathan stared at him.
“How?”
“Because there were only fifty made.”
Daniel typed something into the system.
A photograph appeared.
Nathan’s face changed.
Richard whispered one name.
“Marcus.”
Emily looked between them.
“Who is Marcus?”
Nathan answered.
“My uncle.”
Richard’s younger brother.
Marcus Caldwell.
The man Richard had forced out of the family company nine years earlier.
The man who had once promised to take everything Richard owned.
May you like
And according to flight records Daniel pulled up minutes later, Marcus had returned to the city exactly thirty-two days ago.
The same week Vanessa started planning the final details of her wedding.
