Chapter 2 - THE ROOM THAT WASN’T ON THE MAIN SYSTEM“Restore the feed,” I ordered.
Thomas worked across the console.
“The living-room camera wasn’t disconnected,” he said. “Its signal was redirected.”
“To where?”
He opened the system logs.
A secondary recording network had been operating inside my mansion for almost six months.
It was not installed by my security company.
Someone had added private cameras, microphones, and hidden storage controlled through an outside server.
Patricia had not merely discovered my surveillance.
She had created her own.
Thomas accessed the archived footage.
The first recording showed Patricia standing alone in my late wife’s study.
She opened a jewelry box, removed the platinum bracelet she later accused Rosa of stealing, and slipped it into the pocket of her own coat.
Hours later, she placed it inside Rosa’s linen cabinet.
The theft had been staged.
Another recording showed Patricia forcing Daniela to stand against a wall because she spilled juice.
Another showed Martina sitting on a small chair while Patricia withheld her stuffed rabbit.
Then Thomas found a room missing from the standard security grid.
The blue guest room at the end of the north hallway.
I had not entered it for months.
“Open that feed.”
The screen flickered.
Two child-sized chairs faced a blank wall. A behavior chart hung above them. A black notebook rested beside a box of candy, several medicine bottles, and a cream envelope bearing my daughters’ names.
Patricia entered with Daniela.
“Sit.”
Daniela obeyed.
Patricia turned on a camera mounted behind a decorative clock.
“What do you say if anyone asks why you are afraid?”
Daniela stared at the floor.
“Rosa yells at us.”
“Again.”
“Rosa yells at us.”
“And Daddy?”
“He leaves us all the time.”
“Who makes you feel safe?”
Daniela hesitated.
Patricia leaned closer.
“Who?”
“You.”
The answer came out barely above a whisper.
Patricia rewarded her with one piece of candy.
I felt physically sick.
She was training my daughter to make false statements.
The next recording showed Martina crying in the same chair.
Patricia paced in front of her.
“If you tell your father what happens in this room, Rosa will disappear. Do you want that?”
Martina shook her head violently.
“Then you will say Rosa frightens you.”
“But she doesn’t.”
Patricia took the rabbit from her.
“She will when I’m finished.”
Thomas froze the footage.
“This has been happening for months.”
I could barely speak.
“Why?”
He searched the files connected to the hidden system.
The server belonged to Lane Family Behavioral Services.
Patricia’s brother, Nathan Lane, owned the company.
Its public website described a private residential program for children experiencing emotional instability.
The facility was located in Switzerland.
In the blue room, Patricia opened the cream envelope.
The camera caught enough of the pages to reveal several headings:
Temporary behavioral placement.
Guardian consent.
International therapeutic travel.
My signature appeared at the bottom.
I had never signed them.
The next audio file contained Patricia speaking on the phone.
“After the wedding, Adrian will travel as usual. The girls will be transferred while he’s gone.”
A man answered:
“And Rosa?”
“She’ll be accused of theft and inappropriate emotional attachment. By the time Adrian understands, the children will already be enrolled.”
“What if they resist?”
Patricia smiled.
“They’re learning not to.”
I stood so quickly my chair rolled backward.
Thomas blocked the door.
“Sir, stopping her now protects the children today. Waiting a little longer may reveal the entire network.”
Every instinct in me demanded that I run upstairs.
But Patricia believed I was over the Atlantic.
That was the only advantage we had.
I forced myself back into the chair.
On another camera, Rosa was kneeling beside Martina, returning the stuffed rabbit and whispering:
“Your father will see the truth one day.”
Then Patricia entered my office.
She walked directly to the safe beneath my desk.
She entered the correct code on her first attempt.
Inside were the trust documents created by my late wife for Martina and Daniela.
May you like
Patricia removed the entire file.
Cliffhanger: Patricia had spent months manufacturing fear—but the documents she stole from my safe proved the children were only the first part of her plan.
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