Chapter 4 - THE CAMERA IN THE VENT
Victor moved instantly.
“Lock the door.”
Lily did.
Victor checked the bathroom.
Empty.
The closet.
Empty.
Then he looked up.
A ventilation grille sat above the television.
Something tiny flashed behind it.
A lens.
Victor dragged a chair beneath the vent.
He climbed up and ripped the grille loose.
A miniature camera dropped into his hand.
Lily stared.
“Oh my God.”
Victor’s phone rang.
Daniel.
“Sir, police are at the house.”
Victor looked at the camera.
“We have a bigger problem.”
He explained.
Daniel cursed.
“I’m sending two men to the hospital.”
“No uniforms. Whoever planted this knew exactly which room Ethan was assigned.”
“That means hospital access.”
“Or access to my staff.”
Victor ended the call.
Lily sat down slowly.
Her hands were shaking.
“This is because of me.”
“No.”
“She contacted me. Then somebody put a camera here.”
“Lily.”
She looked at him.
Victor’s voice softened.
“Tell me everything Rebecca said.”
“She called once. Yesterday.”
“You said she never answered.”
“I called her back. She didn’t answer. But she called me first from a different number.”
Victor clenched his jaw.
“What did she say?”
“She sounded terrified.”
“Of Serena?”
“She wouldn’t say Serena’s name.”
“Then what did she say?”
Lily closed her eyes, trying to remember exactly.
“She said, ‘The woman in that house isn’t who she says she is.’”
Victor leaned closer.
“Anything else?”
“She said she had proof. She told me she hid something where no one would look.”
“The recorder?”
“I don’t know.”
Victor looked toward Ethan.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
Lily’s laugh was bitter.
“Because I thought you’d already chosen who to believe.”
Victor absorbed that without defending himself.
He deserved it.
“I should’ve listened to you.”
Lily looked at him.
“Yes.”
No softness.
No easy forgiveness.
Just truth.
Victor nodded.
“Yes. I should have.”
The door opened.
Daniel entered with a hospital security officer.
“We traced the miniature camera signal.”
Victor stood.
“To where?”
Daniel held up a tablet.
“It was transmitting through a private server.”
“Owned by?”
“That’s the strange part.”
Victor waited.
Daniel looked uncomfortable.
“The account is registered to Blackwood Holdings.”
Victor stared at him.
“That’s my company.”
“Yes.”
“So someone inside my company is helping her.”
“Or someone has stolen company credentials.”
Victor looked at Lily.
The problem had just grown.
This wasn’t Serena manipulating a household.
This was infrastructure.
Access.
Planning.
Money.
Daniel handed Victor a report.
“There’s more.”
Victor read.
The hidden room had been searched.
Fingerprints were found.
Serena’s.
Maria’s.
One unknown set.
And Lily’s.
Victor looked up.
Lily stared at him.
“That’s impossible.”
Daniel said, “Your prints were on the folder containing Mr. Blackwood’s trust documents.”
“I have never been in that room!”
Victor watched her carefully.
Lily’s face was not guilty.
It was terrified.
Daniel continued.
“We also found one of your earrings under the table.”
Lily reached to her ear.
Her right earring was missing.
She went pale.
“I lost it last week.”
“Where?”
“I don’t know.”
Victor rubbed his forehead.
Someone was building evidence.
Layer by layer.
Enough to frame Lily if something went wrong.
The police entered the room a few minutes later.
Detective Noah Ruiz was in his early forties, calm-eyed, with the tired expression of a man who had stopped being surprised by wealthy people years ago.
He interviewed Lily first.
Then Victor.
Then Daniel.
Finally, he asked Victor a simple question.
“Mr. Blackwood, who benefits if the nanny takes the blame?”
“Serena.”
“Maybe.”
Victor frowned.
Ruiz continued.
“But your fiancée is about to marry a billionaire. Why risk everything by hurting a toddler herself?”
Victor’s voice went cold.
“You’re suggesting Lily did it?”
“I’m suggesting I don’t marry theories. I marry evidence.”
Victor hated the phrase.
But he respected it.
Ruiz turned to Lily.
“Ms. Carter, I need permission to search your apartment.”
She nodded immediately.
“Do it.”
Victor looked at her.
“You don’t have to—”
“Yes, I do.”
Her eyes met his.
“Because whoever did this is counting on you doubting me.”
Two hours later, Ruiz called from Lily’s apartment.
His voice was different.
More serious.
“We found something.”
Victor put the phone on speaker.
“What?”
“A locked suitcase under Ms. Carter’s bed.”
Lily frowned.
“I don’t own a locked suitcase.”
Ruiz continued.
“Inside are photographs of Ethan.”
Lily’s mouth fell open.
“Lots of them.”
Victor felt sick.
“What kind?”
“Sleeping. Bath time. Playing outside.”
Lily whispered, “No.”
“And there’s cash.”
“How much?”
“One hundred eighty thousand dollars.”
Lily gripped the edge of the chair.
“I have never seen that money.”
Ruiz paused.
“There’s also a passport.”
Victor asked, “Whose?”
Another pause.
Ruiz answered.
“Yours, Ms. Carter.”
Lily blinked.
“My passport is in my dresser.”
“Not this one.”
Ruiz’s voice lowered.
“This one has your photograph.”
Lily waited.
“But the name is Rebecca Hall.”
Nobody spoke.
Victor felt the hairs rise along his arms.
Rebecca.
His missing former nanny.
Lily whispered, “That’s not possible.”
Ruiz said, “I need you to stay at the hospital until I get there.”
The call ended.
Lily turned to Victor.
“I swear to you—”
Victor’s phone vibrated.
A text from Daniel.
He opened it.
Security footage from the mansion’s west entrance.
Timestamp: four months earlier.
The day Rebecca disappeared.
A woman in a hooded coat was being forced into the back seat of a black SUV.
The person pushing her wore sunglasses and a baseball cap.
But just before the door closed, the woman turned toward the camera.
Victor recognized her face.
Rebecca.
Then the other person looked up.
Victor enlarged the image.
Lily stared over his shoulder.
Her entire body went rigid.
The person forcing Rebecca into the SUV…
May you like
looked exactly like Lily.
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