Chapter 2 - THE CAMERA GABRIEL NEVER INSTALLED
The mansion locked down in forty-seven seconds.
Gabriel's security chief, Marco Bellini, appeared in the playroom with two guards.
Emma was still holding the hidden camera.
Sophia had fallen asleep on the sofa.
Lily sat in Emma's lap.
“Give it to me,” Gabriel said.
Emma did.
“Where did you find it?”
“Yesterday.”
His anger sharpened.
“You waited twenty-four hours?”
“I wasn't sure what it was.”
“You knew enough to remove it.”
“I knew it wasn't positioned like the others.”
Gabriel looked at Marco.
“You swept this house.”
“Three times.”
“Apparently not well.”
Marco's face tightened.
Gabriel turned back to Emma.
“Why didn't you tell me immediately?”
She hesitated.
“Because I didn't know whether it belonged to you.”
“You could have asked.”
“I did.”
Gabriel frowned.
“When?”
“I asked Mr. Hail whether every camera was disclosed to staff.”
Jonathan.
Gabriel's lawyer.
“What did he say?”
“That security arrangements were none of my concern.”
Gabriel became very still.
Emma continued.
“So I waited until Lily and Sophia weren't in the room and checked it myself.”
“You removed it while Lily was there.”
“She crawled back in.”
Gabriel looked toward his daughter.
Lily smiled at him.
His anger dissolved for half a second.
Then returned.
Marco opened the device.
“No wireless transmitter.”
“Storage?”
“Internal.”
He connected it to a secure laptop.
The first video appeared.
Nursery.
Two months earlier.
Second.
Hallway.
Three months earlier.
Third.
The children's private therapy room.
Gabriel's stomach turned.
Whoever installed it had been watching his daughters before Gabriel's own surveillance system existed.
Then Marco opened the oldest file.
Date:
Sixteen months earlier.
Gabriel stopped breathing.
His wife, Alessandra, appeared on-screen.
Alive.
The twins were infants.
She carried Lily into the therapy room.
Then another person entered.
Jonathan Hail.
Gabriel's lawyer.
His oldest adviser.
Jonathan closed the door.
The recording had no audio.
Alessandra looked furious.
Jonathan handed her papers.
She tore them in half.
He grabbed her wrist.
Gabriel stood so quickly his chair rolled backward.
On-screen, Alessandra slapped Jonathan.
Then pointed toward Lily.
Jonathan left.
The footage ended.
Emma whispered:
“Your wife knew.”
Gabriel stared at the blank screen.
Alessandra had died fourteen months ago.
A car accident on the West Side Highway.
At least that was what Gabriel had believed.
Now a hidden camera had just shown him that two months before her death, she had been secretly meeting the lawyer who controlled nearly every legal structure surrounding Gabriel's children.
And Jonathan had never mentioned it.
Gabriel picked up his phone.
“Bring Hail to me.”
Marco didn't move.
“Sir.”
“What?”
“Hail left the estate twenty minutes ago.”
Gabriel's eyes narrowed.
“Where?”
“We don't know.”
Then Emma noticed Lily.
The child was staring at the paused image of her mother.
“Mama,” she whispered.
Gabriel turned.
Lily reached toward the screen.
Then her expression changed.
Fear.
She began shaking her head.
“No.”
Gabriel crouched.
“Lily?”
“No car.”
His blood froze.
Lily had barely been one when Alessandra died.
Nobody believed she remembered anything.
But she was staring at Jonathan Hail's face.
“No car,” she repeated.
May you like
Then she buried her face against Emma and started screaming.
---
