Chapter 3
Arthur ordered Victoria and Margaret out of the house.
This time, the police watched them leave.
Victoria didn’t scream.
That scared me more.
She just looked at Noah once, then at me, and smiled as if she had already chosen her next move.
After the door closed, Arthur turned to Daniel.
“Lock down the estate.”
“Yes, sir.”
“No one gets in without my approval. Not my mother. Not Victoria. Not family counsel.”
Daniel nodded.
Then Arthur looked at me.
“Elena, you and Noah stay in the east wing tonight.”
I shook my head.
“I can’t stay here.”
His face tightened.
“You’re safer here.”
“No,” I said. “I’m not.”
The words surprised both of us.
But once they left my mouth, I couldn’t take them back.
“This house has cameras, guards, gates, alarms,” I said. “And still Victoria stood over your baby with a hot iron.”
Arthur flinched.
I hated hurting him.
But I hated silence more.
Noah had almost paid for silence.
Arthur rubbed both hands over his face.
“You’re right.”
The room felt too big around us.
Too polished.
Too full of things money bought and truth avoided.
“I have a sister in Queens,” I said. “I can take the train tonight.”
Arthur stared at me.
“You think I’m letting you carry my son onto a train while my fiancée and mother are threatening you?”
“Then what do you want me to do?”
Before he could answer, Daniel returned.
“Sir, you need to see this.”
He held a tablet.
Security footage from the nursery hallway.
Not tonight.
Another night.
Three weeks earlier.
The camera showed Victoria entering the nursery at 2:13 a.m.
Noah was crying in his crib.
Victoria stood over him.
She didn’t pick him up.
She leaned down and whispered something.
The audio was faint, but Daniel turned it up.
“You should never have been born.”
My knees weakened.
Arthur grabbed the back of a chair.
The video continued.
Victoria lifted a pillow from the rocking chair.
She held it in both hands.
Then stopped.
Not because she changed her mind.
Because footsteps sounded in the hallway.
My footsteps.
On the screen, I entered with a bottle, and Victoria smiled like she had only been checking on him.
Arthur whispered, “How many times?”
Daniel didn’t answer fast enough.
Arthur looked at him.
“How many?”
Daniel swallowed.
“We found eleven flagged clips since Miss Rivera started working here.”
Miss Rivera.
That was me.
Elena Rivera.
Thirty-two years old.
Daughter of a retired school janitor and a woman who cleaned hotel rooms until arthritis bent her fingers.
I had spent most of my life being told to keep my head down.
But watching that video, I felt something old and obedient inside me die.
Arthur turned to Daniel.
“Why wasn’t I told?”
Daniel’s face went pale.
“Sir, the alerts were reviewed by Mrs. Whitmore’s office.”
Arthur stared.
“My mother blocked them?”
Daniel nodded once.
Arthur’s phone rang.
The screen showed Margaret.
He answered on speaker.
His voice was ice.
“What did you do?”
Margaret sighed.
“Arthur, please. Victoria is upset because you embarrassed her.”
“You blocked security alerts from my son’s nursery.”
Silence.
Then Margaret said, “I protected you from hysteria.”
I stepped closer without meaning to.
“Hysteria?”
Margaret ignored me.
“Grace became impossible after Noah was born. She heard threats everywhere. She accused everyone. I refused to let another unstable woman poison this family.”
Arthur’s face drained.
“What threats did Grace hear?”
Victoria’s voice came from the background.
“Hang up.”
Margaret continued anyway.
“She thought someone was trying to replace her.”
Arthur closed his eyes.
My breath caught.
Replace her.
Victoria had said the same about me.
Arthur whispered, “Did Grace accuse Victoria?”
Margaret said nothing.
That was enough.
Arthur ended the call.
For a long moment, nobody moved.
Then he looked at me.
“I need to see Grace’s things.”
I hesitated.
“Where are they?”
His shame was visible.
“My mother had them packed away after the funeral.”
“Where?”
“The attic.”
Daniel shook his head.
“Sir, the attic cameras went offline ten minutes ago.”
Arthur looked at the ceiling.
Then we heard it.
May you like
A crash above us.
Someone was already inside the house.
