CHAPTER 2 — The Child No One Could Silence
No one spoke.
Not the guards.
Not the staff.
Not even Vivian.
Every eye remained fixed on the little girl standing on the second-floor landing, hugging her stuffed rabbit against her chest.
Nathaniel Whitmore's three-year-old daughter, Lily.
She had always been unusually quiet.
She rarely spoke more than a few words at a time.
Tonight, every word carried the weight of a verdict.
"The pretty lady pushed Grandma."
Vivian forced a smile.
"Lily, sweetheart..."
"You were dreaming."
Lily slowly shook her head.
"No."
"I was looking."
The foyer grew colder.
One of the security guards glanced uneasily at the surveillance camera mounted above the staircase.
Vivian noticed.
"The cameras have been broken for weeks," she said too quickly.
Rosa turned toward her.
"That's strange."
"The maintenance crew replaced them yesterday."
For the first time that evening...
Vivian's confidence faltered.
Just then, the mansion's front doors burst open.
"Nathaniel!"
A chauffeur hurried inside, breathless.
"Your father is here."
The room froze again.
Nathaniel Whitmore rarely returned home before midnight.
Tonight he had arrived two hours early.
His polished shoes echoed across the marble floor as he entered.
One look at his unconscious mother...
One look at Rosa being restrained...
One look at Lily crying on the staircase...
...was enough.
"What happened?"
Before anyone answered, Lily ran into his arms.
She wrapped both arms around his neck.
"Daddy..."
"The pretty lady hurt Grandma."
Nathaniel looked at Vivian.
Then at the guards holding Rosa.
Finally, he noticed something everyone else had overlooked.
His mother's cane.
It wasn't lying naturally on the stairs.
It had been kicked aside.
Someone had wanted it out of the way.
May you like
Nathaniel quietly pulled out his phone.
"Nobody leaves this house."
