Chapter 4 - THE CAMERA NEVER LIED, BUT PEOPLE DID
The security footage showed Lily hurting Ethan.
At least, that was what it looked like.
Detective Reed placed a tablet on the hospital table.
The video showed the nursery.
Lily entered.
She lifted Ethan.
The baby suddenly jerked.
Then cried.
Lily appeared to grab his arm.
Victor watched without blinking.
Serena’s voice could be heard off camera.
“Stop hurting him!”
Lily felt sick.
“That didn’t happen.”
Reed studied her.
“It’s you.”
“Yes, but that isn’t what happened.”
Victor leaned closer to the screen.
“Play it again.”
Reed did.
Victor watched once.
Twice.
A third time.
Then he pointed.
“There.”
Reed frowned.
“What?”
“The clock.”
On the nursery wall, the clock jumped from 4:11 to 4:19 in less than a second.
Marcus leaned forward.
“Edited.”
Lily exhaled.
Reed didn’t look convinced yet.
“Editing doesn’t automatically clear Miss Carter.”
“It proves somebody manipulated evidence.”
Victor replied.
Reed looked at him.
“You know more about manipulating evidence than most people in Chicago.”
The room went quiet.
Marcus’s expression hardened.
Victor didn’t react.
“Then prove this one.”
Reed watched him for a long second.
Finally, she took the tablet back.
“I intend to.”
Back at the mansion, Serena had been placed in a guest suite with two guards outside.
She protested.
Threatened.
Demanded her lawyer.
Then cried.
Victor ignored all of it.
When he returned from the hospital, he walked directly into the security room.
“Who had access?”
The technician swallowed.
“Seven people.”
“Names.”
He provided them.
Victor studied the list.
Daniel.
Marcus.
Serena.
Victor himself.
Two technicians.
And Rosa.
Lily frowned.
“Rosa?”
The older housekeeper shook her head.
“I barely know how to answer a video call.”
Victor looked at the access logs.
Someone had entered the system using Rosa’s credentials repeatedly.
Always on nights Serena was alone with Ethan.
Rosa started crying.
“I didn’t do this.”
“I know.”
Victor said.
“How?”
“Because whoever did it wanted me to think you did.”
He pointed at a login.
“Look.”
Rosa’s account had accessed the cameras at 2:14 a.m. three weeks earlier.
Rosa had been in Mexico attending her sister’s funeral that week.
Someone had deliberately framed her.
Lily felt a chill.
“Serena planned backups.”
Victor looked at her.
“What?”
“If I spoke, she blamed me.”
Lily pointed toward Rosa.
“If Rosa spoke, she blamed Rosa.”
Marcus added,
“And if either accusation failed, Daniel had access to erase whatever remained.”
Victor stared at the screen.
This wasn’t abuse hidden in anger.
It was a system.
A plan.
Then one of the technicians raised his hand.
“Sir?”
Victor turned.
“There’s something else.”
He opened an archived audio file.
“Someone forgot the hallway microphone wasn’t connected to the camera software.”
He pressed play.
Daniel’s voice filled the room.
“When Victor marries you, keep smiling.”
Then Serena.
“And the boy?”
Daniel replied.
“After the wedding, we finish what Anna started.”
Victor shot to his feet.
“What did he say?”
The technician replayed it.
We finish what Anna started.
Victor’s face changed.
Lily looked at him.
“What does that mean?”
Victor didn’t answer.
He rushed out.
Marcus followed.
Lily caught up in the hallway.
“Victor!”
He stopped.
“My wife’s death was ruled an accident.”
Lily stared at him.
May you like
Victor’s next words came quietly.
“Daniel just gave me a reason to believe it wasn’t.”
