Chapter 2 - The Missing Forty-Seven Minutes)
Daniel took Noah upstairs himself.
He refused to hand his son to anyone.
Not Evelyn.
Not Anna.
Not even the pediatric nurse who lived three blocks away and arrived seven minutes after Daniel called.
Dr. Marcus Hale examined Noah in the nursery while Daniel stood beside the changing table with his arms folded.
The scrape on Noah’s palm was superficial.
The redness around his ankle would bruise.
There was no fracture.
No serious internal injury.
Daniel should have felt relieved.
He didn’t.
“What about the crying?” he asked.
Dr. Hale looked at him.
“He’s frightened.”
“I know that.”
“I mean more than frightened because of what happened today.”
Daniel’s expression changed.
The doctor lowered his voice.
“He reacts when anyone moves toward his legs.”
Daniel glanced toward the bed.
Noah sat beneath a white blanket clutching a stuffed elephant.
His eyes were swollen from crying.
“How long?”
“I can’t tell.”
Daniel looked toward the doorway.
Anna stood outside.
Evelyn had been taken to the downstairs drawing room under supervision.
She had objected loudly.
Daniel had not cared.
“Could something have happened before?”
Dr. Hale chose his words carefully.
“Yes.”
Daniel nodded once.
“Document everything.”
“Daniel…”
“Everything.”
The doctor understood.
After the examination, Daniel sat beside Noah.
“Daddy stay?”
“Yes.”
“No go work.”
Daniel felt the words like a knife.
He had spent the last year telling himself that the hours away from home were temporary.
The company was expanding.
Three acquisitions.
A restructuring.
A dispute with shareholders.
He was building a future for his son.
At least that was what he had told himself.
Now Noah was afraid that his father walking through a doorway meant he would disappear again.
Daniel touched his cheek.
“I’m not leaving tonight.”
Noah leaned against him.
“Anna?”
Daniel looked toward the door.
“Do you want Anna?”
Noah nodded.
Anna entered cautiously.
Daniel watched every movement.
Noah immediately reached for her.
She did not pick him up.
Instead she knelt beside the bed.
“I’m here, sweetheart.”
Noah touched the bruise on her shoulder.
“Anna hurt.”
“I’m okay.”
Daniel looked away.
Ten minutes later, Noah finally fell asleep.
Daniel walked downstairs with Anna.
Neither spoke until they entered his private office.
The security chief, Warren Pike, was waiting.
The memory card sat on the desk.
“So?” Daniel asked.
Warren looked grim.
“It’s real.”
“What’s on it?”
“Video.”
“How much?”
“Fourteen clips.”
Daniel turned toward Anna.
“Explain.”
Anna clasped her hands together.
“Mrs. Carter disabled the interior cameras in the east wing three months ago.”
“Why wasn’t I told?”
Warren answered.
“She told security you ordered it.”
Daniel’s eyes sharpened.
“I did not.”
“We received an authorization email from your account.”
“I never sent one.”
Warren nodded.
“I checked the access log. It came from the villa network.”
Daniel looked at Anna.
“How did you get the recordings?”
“The old nursery camera wasn’t connected to the main system.”
Daniel remembered it.
A small backup camera installed when Noah was born.
He had forgotten it existed.
“Evelyn didn’t know?”
“She found out last week.”
“What happened?”
“She ordered me to remove it.”
“Did you?”
Anna shook her head.
“I moved it.”
“Where?”
“Inside the bookshelf.”
Daniel stared.
“And you recorded her.”
Anna’s eyes filled again.
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you call me?”
“I tried.”
“No, you didn’t.”
“Sir…”
“My phone shows no calls from you.”
“I didn’t call your phone.”
Daniel frowned.
Anna swallowed.
“I called your office.”
His expression hardened.
“When?”
“Five times.”
Daniel looked at Warren.
Warren immediately pulled out his tablet.
Daniel turned back to Anna.
“Who answered?”
“Your assistant.”
“Rachel?”
“Yes.”
“What did you tell her?”
“That I needed to speak to you about Noah urgently.”
“And?”
“She said you were unavailable.”
Daniel’s mouth tightened.
“Five times?”
“Yes.”
“What dates?”
Anna listed them.
Daniel remembered two of those days.
Rachel had specifically told him there were no personal messages.
Warren looked up from the tablet.
“There’s something else.”
Daniel faced him.
“What?”
“The main security system has a gap today.”
“I know.”
“Not just today.”
Warren turned the screen toward him.
“Every Wednesday for the past nine weeks, the east-wing cameras went offline.”
Daniel studied the time stamps.
Always between 2:00 and 3:00 p.m.
Except today.
Today they had gone offline at 3:12.
Daniel had arrived at 3:59.
“How long is today’s gap?”
Warren hesitated.
“Forty-seven minutes.”
Daniel felt something cold settle in his stomach.
“What happened during those forty-seven minutes?”
Anna whispered, “I don’t know.”
Daniel looked at the memory card.
“Show me the clips.”
Warren inserted it into the secure computer.
The first recording began.
The nursery appeared.
Noah was sitting on the floor building blocks.
Evelyn entered.
Her voice was clear.
“Where is it?”
Noah looked up.
“Where is what?”
Evelyn crouched.
“The key.”
Noah stared blankly.
Evelyn’s voice changed.
“The gold key your grandfather gave you.”
Daniel’s breath stopped.
His father had given Noah a small gold key shortly before he died.
Daniel had assumed it belonged to an old desk.
He had never found the lock.
In the video, Evelyn grabbed Noah’s arm.
“Where is it?”
Noah began to cry.
Anna entered the room.
The clip ended.
Daniel clicked the next.
Evelyn searching drawers.
The next.
Evelyn lifting Noah’s mattress.
The next.
Evelyn on the phone.
“I can’t find it.”
A man’s voice came faintly through the speaker.
Daniel leaned closer.
The audio was poor.
But one sentence was clear.
“Then make the boy tell you.”
Daniel turned to Anna.
“Who was she talking to?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did you hear the voice before?”
Anna shook her head.
Daniel replayed it.
Something about the voice bothered him.
Not because he recognized it.
Because the man sounded completely calm.
As if ordering someone to frighten a child was ordinary business.
Warren opened the final clip.
The timestamp was from the previous night.
Evelyn stood alone in the nursery.
She pulled a framed photograph from the wall.
Behind it was a small recessed safe Daniel had never seen.
Evelyn entered four digits.
The safe opened.
She removed a sealed brown envelope.
Daniel stood so abruptly the chair hit the floor.
“What is that?”
Anna whispered, “I don’t know.”
Daniel paused the footage.
The envelope had writing across the front.
The image was blurry.
Warren enlarged it.
Three words became visible.
FOR DANIEL ONLY.
The handwriting belonged to Daniel’s father.
Daniel did not move.
His father had been dead for eleven months.
He had never mentioned a safe.
Never mentioned an envelope.
Daniel looked toward the timestamp.
11:43 p.m.
“What did she do with it?”
Anna shook her head.
“I didn’t know about this recording until I copied the card.”
Daniel looked at Warren.
“Search the villa.”
“Already started.”
“Search Evelyn.”
Warren hesitated.
“She’ll object.”
“I don’t care.”
Daniel turned toward the office door.
Anna spoke.
“Sir.”
He stopped.
“There’s one more thing.”
“What?”
“Yesterday, I heard Mrs. Carter talking to someone in the garage.”
Daniel waited.
“She said, ‘Daniel still thinks his father died naturally.’”
Daniel’s face became completely still.
Anna continued.
“Then the person she was speaking to said something I didn’t understand.”
“What?”
Anna looked at him.
“He said, ‘He’ll understand when we open Room Seven.’”
Upstairs, a floorboard creaked.
Daniel looked toward the ceiling.
May you like
A moment later came the unmistakable sound of breaking glass.
Then Noah screamed.
