Chapter 12 - BACK TO THE MANSION
Ethan wanted Grace nowhere near the mansion.
Grace insisted on going.
“If Charles wants something there, I might know what it is.”
Police searched the property first.
Nothing.
At 3:20 p.m., Ethan and Grace entered the nursery together.
Grace stopped in the doorway.
The crib remained exactly where Ethan had found it.
She stared at the dried stain.
“That blood.”
Ethan nodded.
“We still don’t know whose it was.”
Grace walked closer.
Then she noticed something.
“The crib moved.”
“What?”
“It used to be closer to the wall.”
Ethan examined the floor.
Faint marks showed where the crib had previously stood.
Together they pushed it aside.
Behind it was an electrical outlet.
Except it wasn’t an outlet.
Grace pulled gently.
A small panel opened.
Inside was a flash drive.
Ethan stared at it.
“Did you put that there?”
Grace nodded.
“The night before Evelyn locked me upstairs.”
“You never told me.”
“I thought Charles had found it.”
“What’s on it?”
“Everything I copied.”
They took it directly to investigators.
The files contained the missing link.
Charles had not simply stolen company money.
He had been building a hidden ownership structure.
Once the merger closed, shell corporations controlled by Charles would quietly acquire enough voting rights to influence the merged company.
Within two years, Ethan could have been forced out.
Charles would effectively control an empire worth billions.
But one file was different.
A video.
Grace opened it.
Charles stood inside the nursery.
Rebecca was beside him.
Charles held a small vial.
Then he deliberately poured animal blood onto the crib.
Grace covered her mouth.
Rebecca placed Grace’s ring beside it.
The video had been captured by a tiny camera Grace had installed after becoming suspicious.
Ethan stared at the screen.
There it was.
The lie that had nearly destroyed his marriage.
Recorded from beginning to end.
Then another figure entered the frame.
Ethan leaned closer.
Martin.
Grace froze.
On the video, Martin looked at the blood.
Then at Charles.
“What are you doing?”
Charles answered.
“Giving Ethan a story he’ll believe.”
Martin stepped backward.
“I didn’t agree to this.”
Charles moved toward him.
“You agreed the moment I told you I knew where Anna was.”
Martin’s face collapsed.
The video ended.
Ethan sat back.
Grace looked at him.
“Martin told the truth.”
“Yes.”
Then Ethan noticed the timestamp.
The video had been recorded at 11:48 p.m.
Ethan had returned home at 12:16.
Charles had been inside the mansion twenty-eight minutes before Ethan arrived.
And according to police, Charles still possessed an old security credential.
Ethan grabbed his phone.
“Evacuate the house.”
Grace stared at him.
“What?”
“Now.”
A sound came from the hallway.
One slow footstep.
Then another.
May you like
Ethan turned toward the nursery door.
Charles Mercer was standing there.
