Chapter 2 - Deleted
Ethan refreshed the baby-monitor application three times.
The clip did not return.
He lowered the phone.
“Who has access to this account?”
Victoria answered too quickly.
“Only you.”
Sarah looked at her.
Ethan did too.
“That isn’t true.”
Victoria folded her arms.
“I meant officially.”
“What does that mean?”
“You gave me the household passwords months ago.”
“For the lighting system.”
“The apps use similar credentials.”
Sarah said, “So you can access the camera?”
Victoria’s eyes flashed.
“I don’t know.”
“You just said you had the passwords.”
“I said I might.”
Ethan carried Leo toward the door.
“Sarah, call Dr. Patel.”
Victoria followed.
“Ethan, that’s unnecessary.”
He turned.
“My eleven-month-old son has been coughing after you deliberately released steam over his crib.”
“I did not hurt him.”
“You don’t get to decide that.”
Sarah had never heard Ethan speak to Victoria that way.
Victoria apparently had not either.
Her face hardened.
“Are you really going to humiliate me over a misunderstanding in front of staff?”
Sarah reached for her phone.
Victoria pointed at her.
“She is enjoying this.”
Sarah ignored her.
Ethan said, “Victoria, leave the house.”
Silence.
Victoria blinked.
“What?”
“Go to your apartment in the city.”
“Our wedding is in six weeks.”
“It isn’t happening in six weeks if I don’t understand what I just saw.”
Victoria stared at him.
“You’re choosing a servant over your fiancée.”
Ethan looked down at Leo.
“No. I’m choosing my son.”
Victoria’s expression went completely still.
Then she picked up her handbag.
At the doorway she turned toward Sarah.
There was no crying now.
No wounded fiancée.
Only calculation.
“You should be careful about becoming part of things you don’t understand.”
Sarah answered, “You should be careful around children who can’t defend themselves.”
Victoria left.
Twenty minutes later Dr. Maya Patel arrived.
She examined Leo carefully in the nursery while Ethan stood beside the crib and Sarah waited near the door.
“The good news,” Dr. Patel said, “is that I don’t see signs of a serious injury.”
Ethan’s shoulders lowered slightly.
“But?”
“He was frightened, and the warm vapor may have irritated him. Watch his breathing tonight. If anything changes, call me immediately or take him in.”
Ethan nodded.
“Thank you.”
After the doctor left, Sarah remained quiet.
Ethan noticed.
“What?”
“You need to save whatever is left on the system.”
“I’m trying.”
He opened the application again.
The event list from that afternoon was missing.
Not one clip.
Seven.
3:21.
3:27.
3:34.
3:41.
3:42.
3:43.
3:44.
All gone.
Ethan looked unsettled.
“Why would seven clips disappear?”
Sarah walked to the fireplace.
“The camera activates when there’s movement.”
“So?”
“If Victoria was only trying to erase the steam incident, she might delete one clip.”
Ethan understood.
“You think something happened before that.”
“Or she said something.”
They went to Ethan’s study.
He opened the smart-home control panel on his laptop.
The system maintained a basic administrative log.
Ethan searched for recent access.
One remote session had been opened at 3:48 p.m.
Exactly five minutes after Sarah entered the drawing room.
The session had used Ethan’s administrator credentials.
Location data was approximate.
But the network name was visible.
HALE-BIO-EXECUTIVE
Ethan stared at it.
“That’s the corporate office network.”
Sarah pulled out a chair.
“Victoria wasn’t at the office.”
“No.”
“Then who was?”
Ethan’s fingers moved faster.
The login originated from the executive floor.
Only eight people had access to that network.
Ethan.
His sister Nora, Hale Biomedical’s chief financial officer.
Three vice presidents.
The general counsel.
The chairman’s assistant.
And Victoria.
Except Victoria had been standing in the drawing room.
Sarah said, “Could she have connected remotely through someone’s computer?”
“Possibly.”
Ethan clicked another tab.
A warning appeared.
ADMINISTRATOR SECURITY SETTINGS MODIFIED 12 DAYS AGO.
He opened it.
Someone had added a secondary recovery email address.
The address was partly masked.
v********@cranelegacy.com
Ethan went pale.
Sarah read it twice.
“Crane.”
Victoria’s family company.
Ethan grabbed his phone.
He called Victoria.
She rejected the call.
He called again.
Rejected.
A third time.
Straight to voicemail.
Then Ethan received a text.
VICTORIA: Stop digging through systems you don’t understand. Call me when you’re calm.
Sarah read it over his shoulder.
Ethan typed:
Did you delete the video?
No answer.
He typed again.
Who at my office accessed the account?
This time the reply came immediately.
VICTORIA: Ask your sister.
Ethan stared at the message.
“Nora?”
Sarah remembered seeing Nora Hale at dozens of family dinners.
Forty-one years old.
Sharp.
Controlled.
Protective of Ethan since their father’s death.
“She wouldn’t help Victoria erase evidence involving Leo.”
Ethan did not answer.
His phone rang.
Nora.
He picked up.
“Nora.”
Her voice came through urgently.
“Ethan, we need to talk before you do anything else.”
“What did you do?”
A pause.
Then:
“Not over the phone.”
Ethan looked at Sarah.
“When?”
“Now.”
“Where are you?”
Another pause.
“At the office.”
Ethan’s gaze shifted back to the login record.
The deletion had come from the office.
From the same building where Nora was sitting.
Then she said something that made his face tighten.
“And Ethan?”
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“Yes?”
“Do not call the police yet.”
