Chapter 5 - The First Trap)
The following morning, Sarah woke to police officers in the mansion.
For half a second, she thought Richard had finally acted.
Then she saw Victoria crying.
Not ordinary crying.
Perfect crying.
Her makeup was untouched.
Her breathing trembled just enough.
Richard stood near the staircase.
He looked furious.
A police officer approached Sarah.
"Ms. Collins?"
"Yes."
"We need to ask you some questions."
Sarah looked at Richard.
"What happened?"
Victoria covered her mouth.
Richard answered.
"Money is missing from my study."
Sarah stared at him.
"How much?"
"Forty thousand dollars."
The amount had been kept in a locked drawer for an upcoming charity auction purchase.
Sarah did not know that.
She had never opened Richard's desk.
The officer asked whether she would allow her room to be searched.
Sarah understood immediately.
"Yes."
Victoria whispered, "Richard, maybe we shouldn't."
Sarah looked at her.
There it was.
The performance.
Concern.
Mercy.
Reluctance.
The police searched Sarah's room.
They found the envelope under a folded sweater in her dresser.
Forty thousand dollars.
Sarah felt the floor disappear beneath her.
"I didn't put that there."
Victoria began crying harder.
Richard's expression remained unreadable.
The officer asked Sarah where she had been the previous evening.
With Ethan.
Had anyone entered her room?
She did not know.
Had she ever handled the money?
No.
Did she have debts?
Student loans.
Nothing extraordinary.
Sarah answered everything.
Then the officer asked Richard whether he wanted to press charges.
Victoria stepped toward him.
"Richard, don't."
Sarah nearly laughed.
The cruelty of it was exquisite.
Richard looked at Sarah.
"We have cameras."
Victoria's face changed.
Only slightly.
The officer nodded.
"We'll review them."
Victoria recovered immediately.
"Of course."
Marcus entered.
"The upstairs hall camera was offline between seven forty and eight fifteen."
The same period when the money disappeared.
The officer frowned.
Sarah said nothing.
Richard looked at Victoria.
She avoided his gaze.
The police did not arrest Sarah immediately because Richard refused to file a formal complaint until the security system had been examined.
Victoria acted shocked by his reluctance.
After the officers left, she found Sarah in the laundry room.
"Terrible morning."
Sarah continued folding Ethan's blankets.
Victoria leaned against the table.
"You should leave."
"No."
"You were found with stolen money."
"Planted money."
"Prove it."
Sarah looked up.
Victoria smiled.
"That's the difficulty with people like you. You think truth matters by itself."
"It does."
"No. Evidence matters."
Sarah almost smiled.
Victoria noticed.
"What?"
"Nothing."
"What are you smiling at?"
Sarah folded another blanket.
"Just remembering something."
The smile disappeared from Victoria's face.
She walked away.
Sarah waited until the door closed.
Then she exhaled.
Victoria was right.
Evidence mattered.
But she did not know about the old camera.
The marble hallway camera did not cover Sarah's bedroom.
It did, however, cover the staircase.
Marcus reviewed the independent recording.
At 7:52 p.m., Victoria's personal assistant, Claire Donnelly, walked upstairs carrying a garment bag.
At 8:04, Claire returned downstairs without it.
At 8:16, she left the mansion carrying the garment bag again.
Marcus obtained the entry log for Sarah's room.
The door was old and did not have electronic access.
No proof.
Then Sarah remembered something.
"The baby monitor."
Marcus turned.
"What?"
"Ethan was asleep in my room for twenty minutes yesterday while maintenance checked the nursery air conditioner."
She pulled up the portable monitor recording.
At 7:57 p.m., the screen showed Ethan sleeping in a travel crib.
Behind him, the bedroom door opened.
Claire entered.
She moved carefully.
The camera angle did not show the dresser.
But it showed her remaining inside for ninety seconds.
When confronted privately by Marcus and Jonathan, Claire broke.
Victoria had told her Richard needed documents placed inside Sarah's dresser as part of a "loyalty test."
Claire claimed she did not know the envelope contained money.
Jonathan advised her to get an attorney.
Claire agreed to provide a statement.
Richard watched the recorded interview.
He looked physically ill.
"She tried to have Sarah arrested."
Jonathan corrected him.
"She tried to discredit the only person preventing her from controlling access to Ethan."
Richard looked at Sarah.
"I should have ended it yesterday."
Sarah did not disagree.
"End it now."
Marcus shook his head.
"Adrian called her last night from a number associated with a private investigator."
Richard looked at him.
"What investigator?"
"We're checking."
Jonathan added, "If we confront her before we know what they're doing, Adrian disappears."
Richard's patience was gone.
"My son's safety matters more than Adrian."
"Yes," Sarah said. "So Ethan leaves today."
This time there was no delay.
Richard's sister Rebecca lived forty minutes away in a gated property with her husband and two children.
Sarah packed Ethan's things.
Richard planned to tell Victoria that the baby was spending a few nights with Rebecca because Sarah had become emotionally overwhelmed by the police incident.
They wanted Victoria to believe her plan had worked.
Sarah hated the lie.
But if Victoria thought Sarah had been weakened, she might become careless.
At noon, Rebecca arrived through the service entrance.
Sarah carried Ethan downstairs.
He was cheerful, unaware of everything happening around him.
Richard kissed his forehead.
"I'll see you tonight."
Ethan grabbed his father's tie.
Richard smiled for the first time in days.
Then a voice came from the doorway.
"Going somewhere?"
Victoria stood there.
No one had heard her approach.
Her eyes moved from Sarah to Ethan to Rebecca.
Richard answered calmly.
"Ethan is staying with my sister tonight."
Victoria folded her arms.
"Why?"
"Because Sarah needs a night off."
"After stealing from you?"
Rebecca's face tightened.
Richard said, "Enough."
Victoria looked at him.
"You're still defending her?"
"I'm handling it."
Victoria walked toward Ethan.
Sarah shifted the baby away instinctively.
Victoria noticed.
Her expression became cold.
"Give him to me."
Sarah did not move.
Victoria smiled.
"I said give him to me."
Richard stepped between them.
"No."
That single word changed everything.
Victoria looked at him.
For the first time, she realized Richard was no longer confused.
Her eyes moved toward Marcus.
Then Jonathan.
Then Rebecca.
Too many people.
Too many careful faces.
She understood.
Not everything.
Enough.
Victoria stepped backward.
"You think I did something."
Richard did not answer.
Her gaze landed on Sarah.
"You."
Sarah held Ethan closer.
Victoria turned and walked away.
May you like
An hour later, Victoria Hale disappeared from the mansion.
So did the remaining security records from the primary server.
