Chapter 2 - THE CAMERA THAT WENT DARK
Grant carried Lily upstairs himself.
He wrapped her in two blankets and refused Rebecca’s offer to help.
That frightened Rebecca more than anger would have.
Grant Bennett rarely raised his voice.
He rarely accused anyone without evidence.
He simply became quiet.
And powerful men were most dangerous when they became quiet.
Dr. Marcus Reed arrived twenty minutes later.
He examined Lily while Grant stood beside the bed.
“Her temperature is low, but she’ll be all right.”
Marcus glanced toward the doorway where Rebecca waited.
Then he looked at Lily’s wrists.
There were faint marks near the skin.
Grant saw him notice them.
“What are those?”
Lily immediately pulled the blanket higher.
Marcus answered carefully.
“Could be pressure marks.”
“From what?”
“I can’t say.”
Rebecca stepped inside.
“From physical therapy.”
Grant turned.
“Her therapy was yesterday.”
Rebecca hesitated.
Only for half a second.
“It may take time for marks to appear.”
Marcus looked at Grant.
That explanation made no medical sense.
Grant understood the look.
“Rebecca, leave us.”
Her smile stiffened.
“Grant—”
“Now.”
She left.
Grant sat beside Lily.
“Sweetheart, I need you to tell me the truth.”
Lily’s eyes filled again.
“Will Evelyn go away?”
Grant frowned.
“Why would she?”
Lily looked toward the closed bedroom door.
Then she whispered.
“People go away when they make her mad.”
Grant felt cold spread through his chest.
“Who is her?”
Lily did not answer.
Downstairs, Evelyn tried to reach Grant.
Rebecca intercepted her in the corridor.
“You should pack.”
Evelyn stared at her.
“You think I’m afraid of you?”
“I think you’re sixty-two years old with no family in this state and no savings large enough to fight Bennett lawyers.”
“You threatened a child.”
Rebecca smiled faintly.
“And who will believe you?”
“I will make him believe me.”
Rebecca stepped closer.
“You’ve tried before.”
Evelyn went still.
That was true.
Six months earlier, she had told Grant that Lily became frightened whenever Rebecca entered the nursery.
Rebecca produced pediatric reports describing Lily’s post-traumatic anxiety.
Grant had believed the doctors.
What Evelyn had never known was that Rebecca had chosen those doctors.
“You erased the cameras,” Evelyn said.
Rebecca’s eyes sharpened.
“I don’t know what you mean.”
“You looked at them before they went dark.”
Rebecca leaned closer.
“Be careful.”
“Claire wasn’t careful either.”
Evelyn’s face changed.
Rebecca realized too late what she had said.
Neither woman moved.
Then Evelyn whispered.
“What do you know about Claire?”
Rebecca smiled again.
But the confidence was forced now.
“Exactly what everyone knows.”
“She died.”
Evelyn stared at her.
“They never found her body.”
Rebecca walked away.
That night, Grant entered the mansion’s security room.
The system showed a seventeen-minute data failure.
Exactly seventeen minutes.
No footage.
No backup.
No cloud archive.
His security chief, Daniel Price, looked uncomfortable.
“This wasn’t a normal outage.”
“What was it?”
“Someone with administrator access manually deleted the local file and interrupted the remote upload.”
Grant’s jaw tightened.
“How many people have administrator access?”
Daniel hesitated.
“Four.”
“Names.”
“You.”
“Me.”
“Your head of household.”
“And Ms. Hale.”
Grant looked through the glass toward the dark mansion.
Upstairs, the woman he intended to marry was sleeping thirty feet from his daughter.
For the first time, he wondered whether he had invited danger into his home.
Across the country, Anna Mercer stood before a mirror.
She touched the unfamiliar line of her reconstructed jaw.
Then she looked at an old newspaper article on her tablet.
BILLIONAIRE’S WIFE PRESUMED DEAD AFTER MOUNTAIN CRASH.
Below the headline was a photograph.
Grant Bennett.
A younger Lily.
And Claire Bennett.
Anna stared at Claire’s eyes.
Her own eyes.
Then she collapsed into the chair.
“I’m her.”
A second article appeared beneath it.
GRANT BENNETT ANNOUNCES ENGAGEMENT TO FAMILY FRIEND REBECCA HALE.
Anna stared at Rebecca’s face.
A memory flashed.
Rain.
A parking garage.
Rebecca standing beside Claire’s car.
A silver wrench in her hand.
Then darkness.
May you like
Anna whispered one sentence.
“You were there.”
