Chapter 2 - Seventeen Recordings
Leo’s pediatrician examined him within the hour.
No burn.
No airway injury.
No lasting physical harm.
The physician was careful not to minimize what happened.
Leo had been frightened and irritated by the steam, but Sarah had removed him quickly.
Ethan sat beside the examination table holding his son.
Sarah remained nearby because Leo relaxed when he heard her voice.
Victoria was not there.
Ethan had asked her to leave the mansion before they drove to the clinic.
She refused at first.
Then he told security to escort her out.
The wedding was eleven days away.
Or had been.
Sarah did not ask.
After the doctor left, Ethan looked toward her.
“You saw everything?”
“Yes.”
“Before you came in?”
“No.”
“Anything before today?”
Sarah hesitated.
Ethan noticed.
“What?”
“There were things.”
His expression changed.
“What things?”
Sarah had spent six months convincing herself they were too small to accuse someone over.
Victoria entering the nursery after telling Sarah not to.
Moving Leo’s blankets after the pediatric nurse had arranged them.
Insisting the baby “needed to learn” not to be picked up immediately when crying.
Once unplugging the monitor because she said the green light annoyed her.
Sarah told Ethan now.
Every detail.
He listened without interrupting.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I did.”
He frowned.
“When?”
“Three weeks ago.”
Ethan remembered.
Sarah had said Victoria seemed uncomfortable with Leo’s routine.
He had smiled.
Called it “adjustment.”
Told Sarah to give Victoria time.
He looked down.
“I didn’t understand what you meant.”
“I didn’t say enough.”
“You shouldn’t have had to.”
Sarah appreciated the sentence.
But she did not let him escape entirely.
“I should have been clearer.”
He nodded.
Both could be true.
Back at the mansion, Officer Daniel Reyes—not related to the officer from another story, simply a local detective—arrived after Ethan made a report.
Sarah gave a statement.
So did Ethan.
The iron was photographed.
The note was bagged.
Victoria communicated only through an attorney.
Detectives asked Ethan whether he wanted to review the older monitor clips before police collected the system.
“Yes.”
Sarah stayed.
The first six recordings showed nothing alarming.
Victoria entering.
Checking Leo.
Standing near the crib.
Once adjusting the blinds.
Then recording seven.
Two weeks earlier.
Victoria stood beside Leo while he slept.
She held his pacifier.
Removed it.
Waited.
Leo woke and began fussing.
Victoria watched.
She did not comfort him.
After nearly a minute, Sarah entered from the hall.
Victoria immediately handed her the pacifier.
On recording nine, Victoria leaned over the crib and whispered something too quietly for the microphone.
On recording eleven, she took a photograph of a document lying beside Leo’s diaper bag.
Ethan recognized it.
A trust summary from his family attorney.
He stopped the video.
“Why was that in the nursery?”
“I left my briefcase there after a call.”
“What trust?”
Sarah asked.
Ethan looked uncomfortable.
“Leo’s.”
The answer surprised her.
Leo was an infant.
But the Hale family—Ethan finally used his surname—owned several real-estate and manufacturing companies.
Ethan’s father had created a generation-skipping trust years earlier.
When Leo was born, part of the family’s voting stock transferred into an irrevocable trust for the first grandchild.
Sarah understood only enough to know it involved enormous money.
“How much?”
Ethan did not answer directly.
“Enough that people care.”
Recording twelve showed Victoria photographing another page.
Recording thirteen showed her calling someone from the nursery.
The monitor microphone caught only her side.
“Yes.”
Pause.
“I saw the percentage.”
Pause.
“No, Ethan doesn’t realize what it means.”
Pause.
“After the wedding.”
Then:
“The baby complicates everything.”
Sarah looked at Ethan.
His face had gone completely still.
He rewound.
Played it again.
The wording was different from the note.
But close.
Detective Reyes asked:
“Who would she be speaking to?”
Ethan shook his head.
“I don’t know.”
Then he did.
Sarah saw it.
“You know someone.”
Ethan looked toward the phone.
“My cousin Grant.”
Grant Hale was Ethan’s chief financial officer.
He had organized much of the wedding.
Sarah had met him several times.
Polished.
Funny.
Always holding two phones.
Ethan called.
Grant answered on the second ring.
“Hey. Everything okay?”
Ethan stared at Sarah.
Then said:
“Did you write a note to Victoria saying Leo becomes a problem after the wedding?”
Silence.
Not confusion.
Silence.
Grant finally answered:
“Where did you find that?”
Ethan closed his eyes.
Sarah understood immediately.
Grant knew the note.
He had not denied it.
“Come to the house.”
“Ethan—”
“Now.”
Grant’s voice changed.
“Do not call the police before I explain.”
Detective Reyes raised an eyebrow.
Ethan almost laughed.
“They’re already here.”
Grant ended the call.
He did not come to the mansion.
Twenty minutes later, Ethan received an alert from the company.
Grant had remotely accessed the corporate document system.
Then disabled his own account.
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And disappeared.
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