Chapter 7 - SOMEONE OUTSIDE THE WINDOW
Hadrian reached Sorrel before he finished reading the message.
She was upstairs brushing her teeth.
He picked her up without explanation.
“Daddy?”
“We are going downstairs.”
“Why?”
“I need you near me.”
She looked at his face.
“Is Celeste here?”
Hadrian forced his voice to remain calm.
“No.”
That was the truth as far as he knew.
He carried Sorrel into the interior study.
There were no exterior windows.
Detective Ortiz answered on the first ring.
Hadrian sent her both photographs.
Officers searched the property.
They found footprints near the back hedge.
A section of the fence had been disturbed.
No person was located.
Sorrel sat beneath a blanket while Hadrian tried not to show fear.
She watched him.
“Someone took my picture.”
Hadrian looked at her.
The child had understood more than he wanted.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know.”
“Was it Marcus?”
“Maybe.”
Sorrel looked down at the stuffed rabbit.
“He scares Celeste.”
Hadrian paused.
“What?”
“Marcus scares Celeste.”
“When did you see that?”
Sorrel twisted one ear of the rabbit.
“When he came at night.”
“What did he do?”
“He yelled.”
“At Celeste?”
Sorrel nodded.
“What did he say?”
“He said she was making mistakes.”
Hadrian leaned forward.
“What mistakes?”
Sorrel thought.
“She let me keep the watch.”
Hadrian’s eyes shifted to the smartwatch.
Celeste had known about it.
Or Marcus had.
“Did they talk about the watch?”
“Yes.”
“What did Celeste say?”
“She said it was only for games.”
Hadrian almost smiled bitterly.
The smartwatch looked like a child’s toy.
Its recording function had been buried in a school safety application.
Hadrian had installed it after a field trip two years earlier.
Celeste may genuinely not have understood it could store audio.
“What did Marcus say?”
Sorrel’s voice became quieter.
“He said, ‘You underestimate children.’”
Hadrian stared.
That sounded exactly like Marcus.
Sorrel continued.
“He said I remembered too much.”
Hadrian’s chest tightened.
“About what?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did he say?”
Sorrel shook her head.
Then she looked at the patchwork rabbit.
“Maybe Mommy.”
Hadrian sat beside her.
“What do you remember about Mommy and Marcus?”
Sorrel’s memories were fragments.
A Christmas party.
A garden.
Marcus carrying her on his shoulders.
Eleanor arguing with someone behind a door.
A black car.
The conservatory.
Celeste’s warning about driving carefully.
Nothing complete.
But fragments had already changed the investigation.
Ortiz arrived at midnight.
She brought a digital forensics specialist.
They examined Sorrel’s smartwatch.
More than three hundred audio fragments had been stored.
Hadrian stared at the number.
“Three hundred?”
The technician nodded.
“Automatic activation.”
“What triggers it?”
“Raised voices above a threshold.”
Hadrian looked at Sorrel.
The watch had not been intentionally recording every incident.
It had activated when people shouted.
That meant months of arguments might be stored.
The technician began extracting them.
Hadrian did not allow Sorrel to remain.
Dr. Cole took her upstairs.
Then the recordings began.
January tenth.
Celeste’s voice.
“You do not interrupt me when I am speaking.”
Sorrel crying.
January fourteen.
“You will eat when I tell you.”
January twenty-two.
“You want your father?”
“Yes.”
“He does not want to come home.”
February third.
A metallic sound.
Sorrel whimpering.
Hadrian closed his eyes.
February eighteenth.
Marta shouting.
“Take that off her.”
Then Marcus.
“Not yet.”
The same incident from the hidden kitchen video.
But the watch continued after the camera file ended.
They heard Marta struggling.
Then Marcus.
“Give me the key.”
Marta shouted.
“No.”
Celeste spoke.
“What do we do with her?”
Marcus answered calmly.
“She had an accident.”
Hadrian opened his eyes.
Ortiz immediately marked the timestamp.
The recording continued.
Marta yelled.
“You will not get away with this.”
Marcus laughed.
“We already did.”
Then the audio ended.
Hadrian felt sick.
Marta’s vehicle collision had occurred the following morning.
Now they had evidence Marcus predicted an accident before it happened.
The next file was from February nineteenth.
Celeste was speaking on the phone.
“They said she survived.”
A male voice answered faintly.
Marcus.
“For now.”
Hadrian stood abruptly.
Ortiz glanced at him.
“Sit down.”
He obeyed.
The next recording was worse.
March seventh.
Celeste and Marcus argued.
“You said Hadrian would stay overseas until June.”
“He changed the schedule.”
“What if he comes back?”
“Then keep the girl covered.”
“What about the ankle?”
“Use the basement room only.”
“She screams.”
“Then make sure she learns not to.”
Hadrian stopped the playback.
He could not listen.
Ortiz did not force him.
They skipped forward.
April twelve.
Marcus’s voice again.
“The guardianship has to look necessary.”
Celeste answered.
“She still asks for him.”
“That will stop.”
“She does not trust me.”
“Then break the attachment.”
Hadrian’s eyes closed.
Marcus continued.
“Children adapt.”
“Make home painful when she talks about him.”
“Make it easier when she rejects him.”
Celeste laughed.
“You make it sound like dog training.”
Marcus replied.
“In principle, it is.”
Hadrian’s fist struck the table before he realized he had moved.
The technician jumped.
Ortiz looked at him sharply.
Hadrian stood.
“I need one minute.”
He walked into the hallway.
He leaned against the wall.
He wanted Marcus found.
Not as a businessman.
Not as an opponent.
As a father.
He wanted Marcus to stand in front of him and explain why his daughter had been treated like an experiment.
Ortiz joined him.
“If you go after him yourself, you give him the ending he wants.”
Hadrian looked at her.
“I know.”
“Do you?”
“Yes.”
She studied him.
“Good.”
Hadrian returned to the room.
The recordings continued.
May twenty-four.
Celeste cried.
Not Sorrel.
Celeste.
Marcus was shouting.
“You were never supposed to leave marks.”
“I know.”
“Visible marks destroy the narrative.”
“She fought me.”
“She is seven.”
“She scratched me.”
“Then wear sleeves.”
Celeste’s voice became angry.
“I am doing everything while you sit in an office.”
Marcus answered.
“You are doing what you are paid to do.”
The room became silent.
Hadrian looked at Gideon.
Paid.
Celeste had not merely been Marcus’s accomplice.
She had been employed.
The next words confirmed it.
“I was supposed to marry him.”
“You still are.”
“He barely touches me anymore.”
“That is irrelevant.”
“Not to me.”
Marcus laughed.
“You did not fall in love with him.”
Celeste did not answer.
Marcus repeated.
“Did you?”
A long silence.
Then Celeste whispered.
“No.”
Hadrian expected the confirmation to hurt.
It did not.
Compared with Sorrel’s suffering, his broken engagement meant nothing.
Marcus continued.
“Then remember the contract.”
“What happens after I get guardianship?”
“You vote Sorrel’s shares with us.”
“And after the takeover?”
“You receive your percentage.”
“How much?”
“Enough.”
Celeste’s voice sharpened.
“That is not a number.”
“Twenty million.”
Hadrian almost laughed.
Twenty million dollars.
That was the price attached to destroying his daughter’s sense of safety.
Another recording.
June third.
Celeste was alone.
She whispered into a phone.
“I cannot keep doing this.”
Hadrian leaned forward.
A different male voice answered.
Not Marcus.
“Then finish it faster.”
Celeste sounded frightened.
“Marcus is losing control.”
“He has always been unstable.”
“What if Hadrian finds out about Eleanor?”
The unknown man paused.
“He won’t.”
“And Julian?”
“Handled.”
Hadrian and Ortiz exchanged looks.
The unknown voice continued.
“Get guardianship.”
“Transfer the voting rights.”
“After that, you are done.”
Celeste whispered.
“And Sorrel?”
“What about her?”
“She knows things.”
The man answered.
“Children forget.”
Celeste said nothing.
The man continued.
“And if she doesn’t, there are other solutions.”
Hadrian felt every muscle in his body tense.
Ortiz immediately replayed the voice.
“Do you recognize him?”
Hadrian shook his head.
Gideon shook his.
Julian, listening over speakerphone, said no.
The technician isolated the audio.
“We can enhance it.”
Hadrian looked at the screen.
A third person existed.
Someone above Marcus.
Or beside him.
Someone Celeste feared.
Someone discussing Sorrel as a problem.
Hadrian’s phone vibrated.
Another unknown message.
This time there was no photograph.
Just an address.
A warehouse near the river.
Beneath it:
IF YOU WANT MARCUS, COME ALONE.
Ortiz saw the screen.
“You are not going.”
Hadrian looked at her.
“Obviously.”
The phone vibrated again.
A video loaded.
Marcus appeared tied to a chair.
Blood ran from his forehead.
His gray suit was torn.
Hadrian stared.
Marcus looked terrified.
A distorted voice spoke from behind the camera.
“Hadrian.”
“If you want your friend alive, bring Eleanor’s notebook.”
The image moved closer to Marcus.
Marcus shook his head violently.
“Don’t.”
The distorted voice laughed.
“Interesting.”
“He finally wants to protect you.”
Hadrian stared at the screen.
Marcus looked directly into the camera.
Then he said something that made no sense.
“Do not bring the notebook.”
Hadrian frowned.
Marcus continued.
“Burn it.”
The unseen person struck him.
The video cut.
Ortiz immediately began tracing the file.
Hadrian remained still.
Gideon looked at him.
“Marcus may not be the person at the top.”
“I know.”
Hadrian thought about the audio.
Celeste frightened.
Marcus losing control.
A third voice giving orders.
Then another realization came.
“What if Marcus disappeared because he was running too?”
Ortiz looked up.
Hadrian continued.
“What if the blood in his car was real because someone took him?”
Gideon frowned.
“Then why the prerecorded accusation against you?”
“Insurance.”
Hadrian knew Marcus.
Marcus never entered a negotiation without leverage.
Maybe he had expected betrayal.
Maybe he had prepared to frame Hadrian in case the plan collapsed.
But now someone had Marcus.
Someone wanted Eleanor’s notebook.
At 2:41 a.m., Ortiz received the trace.
She looked at Hadrian.
“The video passed through six servers.”
“Meaning?”
“The warehouse address is probably a trap.”
Hadrian nodded.
“Can you locate the source?”
“Not yet.”
Sorrel suddenly appeared at the study door.
Everyone turned.
Hadrian stood.
“You should be sleeping.”
“I heard Marcus.”
Hadrian looked at Dr. Cole behind her.
Sorrel walked toward the paused video.
Marcus’s face was visible on the screen.
She pointed.
“That is not the man who scares Celeste most.”
Hadrian froze.
“What?”
Sorrel looked at him.
“There was another man.”
“When?”
“He came once.”
“What did he look like?”
Sorrel frowned.
“Old.”
“How old?”
“Like Grandpa.”
Hadrian’s father had been dead for eleven years.
“What else?”
“He had white hair.”
“Did you hear his name?”
Sorrel thought.
Then she nodded.
“Celeste called him Mr. Cross.”
Julian’s voice came through the speakerphone.
“What?”
Sorrel looked toward the phone.
“Mr. Cross.”
Hadrian slowly turned to the device.
Julian sounded shocked.
“That is impossible.”
Hadrian’s heart began pounding.
“Why?”
Julian answered.
“Because the only other Mr. Cross in our family is my father.”
Hadrian remembered Eleanor’s father.
Sebastian Cross.
Powerful.
Brilliant.
Controlling.
A man who had despised Hadrian from the day Eleanor married him.
There was only one problem.
May you like
Sebastian Cross had supposedly died eight years ago.
---
