Chapter 2 - THE CAMERAS SHE THOUGHT WERE OFF
Vanessa's eyes snapped toward the ceiling.
The mansion cameras had small blue lights when active.
Every light was dark.
"The cameras are off," she said.
Noah shook his head.
"Not all of them."
Adrian looked at him.
"What do you mean?"
Noah wiped his nose with his sleeve. "Mom's camera."
Vanessa went pale.
Adrian's first wife, Claire, had installed a private nursery system years earlier when Lily was a baby. After Claire died, Adrian had disconnected most of it.
Or thought he had.
Noah pointed toward a smoke detector above the bookcase.
"That one still blinks at night."
Vanessa lunged for the wall switch.
Adrian caught her wrist.
"Don't touch anything."
"You're taking the word of a child over your wife?"
"I'm taking the word of my children over a cage."
He called Marcus, head of security.
"Lock the property. Nobody leaves. Pull every camera feed, including legacy systems."
Vanessa laughed sharply. "This is insane."
Adrian carried Lily upstairs.
Noah followed.
In the hallway, Lily whispered, "She says bad kids don't eat."
Adrian stopped.
"What?"
Noah looked at the floor.
"Sometimes she skips dinner."
"How many times?"
"When you're gone."
Adrian felt sick.
He called the pediatrician, then police.
Vanessa heard the second call and started shouting from downstairs.
"You are destroying our marriage!"
Adrian walked to the railing.
"No. I'm finding out whether you already did."
Marcus arrived with a tablet twenty minutes later.
His expression was grim.
"Sir, the main system was manually disabled at 12:04 this afternoon."
"By who?"
Marcus looked toward Vanessa.
"Her administrator code."
Vanessa folded her arms.
"I wanted privacy."
Marcus continued.
"But the old nursery server still records locally."
Adrian's heart started pounding.
"Show me."
Marcus hesitated.
"There's more than today."
"How much more?"
May you like
Marcus looked at him.
"Thirty-seven days."
