Chapter 2 - THE ROOM THAT WASN'T HERS
“Nobody moves,” Daniel said.
His voice was quiet, which frightened Victoria more than shouting would have. Robert stood by the doorway, uncertain whether to escort the guest out or wait for another order. Margaret had gone rigid beside the table. Emily held Lily close, her face pale beneath the tears she had tried to hide.
Daniel looked at his daughter first. “Sweetheart, did you see Victoria in our bedroom yourself?”
Lily nodded. “She told me not to tell. Grandma said it was a grown-up surprise.”
Emily closed her eyes. Daniel saw the shame on her face and hated that his family had made her feel responsible for their cruelty.
“You did the right thing telling me,” he said to Lily. Then he turned to Robert. “Have security seal the master suite. No one enters until the cameras are checked. Call our attorney, and preserve every recording from the last seven days.”
Victoria lifted her chin. “You’re treating me like a criminal over a child’s imagination.”
“You brought a photograph of my wife to accuse her of an affair. Now my daughter says you were in my bedroom wearing my wife’s clothes. You can explain it to my lawyer.”
“I was invited here by Margaret.”
Margaret flinched at the sudden attention. “I wanted to help Daniel. Emily has never understood the responsibilities of this family.”
“By humiliating my wife?” Daniel asked. “By putting an apron on her and ordering her to serve you?”
Margaret’s mouth tightened. “She needs to learn how to behave in this house.”
“She owns half of it.”
“She married into it.”
“And you were welcomed into it because you’re my mother. Neither fact gives you the right to abuse the people I love.”
Victoria’s eyes flashed. “You always did enjoy playing the hero, Daniel. You were the same seven years ago. You’d rather rescue someone than admit you made the wrong choice.”
“The wrong choice was trusting you after you came back.”
For a fraction of a second, Victoria’s expression slipped. Beneath the wounded smile was a cold calculation.
Daniel noticed.
“Robert,” he said, “escort Ms. Hayes to the guest suite. She’ll remain there until we’ve reviewed the evidence. She won’t have access to the family wing or any electronic devices connected to our network.”
“You can’t confiscate my phone!”
“I’m not confiscating it. I’m asking you to leave it on the table while our attorney documents what you’ve shown us. If you refuse, you can wait for the police.”
Victoria glanced at Margaret, expecting support. Margaret said nothing.
That silence seemed to frighten Victoria more than Daniel’s threat.
When the guards led her away, Daniel turned to Emily. “Come with me.”
She stiffened.
“Please,” he added, softer. “I want to see what happened in our room, but I don’t want you walking in there alone.”
They left Lily with the housekeeper, who had served the family for twenty years and had never once spoken cruelly to Emily. In the master suite, Daniel stood in the doorway and took in the room he thought he knew.
His ties were arranged by color. His watch sat on the bedside table. Emily’s books were stacked beside the lamp. Nothing looked disturbed until he noticed the framed wedding photograph had been turned slightly toward the wall.
Behind it, someone had placed a small camera.
Daniel’s stomach tightened. He removed it carefully without touching the lens. “Whoever put this here wanted a record of what happened in this room.”
Emily hugged herself. “Victoria said she was going to make you believe I was unfaithful. I thought she was only trying to frighten me.”
Daniel looked at her. “How long has she been threatening you?”
Emily hesitated.
“Tell me the truth. I won’t be angry with you.”
“She started when she arrived. She said you’d never really stopped loving her. Your mother told me that if I wanted to stay married to you, I had to prove I could be useful. They made me serve breakfast. They took my phone once. Victoria said she knew people who could make my brother’s inheritance disappear.”
“Why didn’t you call me?”
“Because every time I tried, your mother said I was embarrassing you while you were in London. She told me you were negotiating the biggest deal of your career, and if I interrupted you, you might lose everything.”
Daniel’s anger shifted into guilt. He had been so focused on closing the deal that he’d accepted brief, cheerful messages from home without noticing Emily’s replies had become shorter. He had mistaken silence for peace.
He took her hands. “I should have noticed.”
“You can’t know what nobody tells you.”
“I should have asked.”
Emily’s eyes filled again, but this time she didn’t turn away. “I didn’t want you to think I couldn’t handle your family.”
“You’re my wife, not an employee on probation.”
A knock interrupted them. Robert stood in the doorway holding a clear evidence bag. Inside was a folded cream-colored nightgown embroidered with Emily’s initials.
“We found this behind the wardrobe,” he said. “It isn’t Mrs. Whitmore’s. The initials are sewn over another name.”
Daniel examined it through the plastic. “Whose?”
“We don’t know yet. But there’s something else.” Robert handed him a printed sheet from the security system. “The camera was installed three nights ago. The person who disabled the hallway feed used a temporary access code generated from your executive account.”
Daniel stared at the report.
Only three people had permission to create that code: Daniel, his chief technology officer, and the executive assistant who had managed his travel schedule.
His phone vibrated. A message from an unknown number appeared.
*If you want to know why Victoria came back, ask your mother what happened the night your father died.*
Daniel read it twice.
His father had died when Daniel was twenty. Margaret had always said the accident was sudden and that there had been nothing anyone could do. Daniel had never questioned her.
May you like
Now, from the hall, his mother called his name.
And when he stepped outside, he found Margaret holding a second envelope—one she was desperate for him not to open.
