Chapter 3 - someone else was watching)
The hidden camera changed everything.
Until that moment, Daniel believed he was dealing with a cruel woman hiding her behavior.
Now he had to consider something worse.
Someone had been recording it.
Ethan arrived in Marbella the following morning on the first flight from London.
He brought a digital forensics specialist named Mara Collins and a private investigator named Jonah Reed.
Daniel met them at the villa gate before sunrise.
Isabella was sleeping in Daniel's bedroom with Rosa nearby.
Beatriz had not returned.
"Good," Ethan said when Daniel told him.
"Doesn't feel good."
"It gives us room."
Mara entered first.
She was forty, sharp eyed, and carried two equipment cases.
"Nobody touches the security equipment until I image the system."
Daniel nodded.
Jonah looked around the garden.
"Where did you first see the child?"
Daniel pointed toward the lawn.
Jonah photographed everything.
The torn bag had not been moved.
The scattered containers remained where they had fallen.
Daniel hated looking at them.
But he understood why they had to stay.
Ethan stood beside him.
"You need sleep."
"I need answers."
"You need both."
Daniel ignored him.
Mara called from inside.
"Daniel."
He entered.
She stood at the security control panel in the utility closet.
"You said you are the owner administrator?"
"Yes."
"And Beatriz?"
"Guest access. Exterior gates, lights, alarms."
Mara turned the monitor toward him.
"Not anymore."
A list of administrator accounts appeared.
Daniel recognized his.
Then the installation company's service account.
Then a third.
BMR Consulting.
"What is that?"
Daniel frowned.
"I don't know."
"Created six months ago."
Six months.
Almost exactly when Isabella said the problems had begun.
"Who created it?"
Mara clicked.
"The audit trail says you."
Daniel stared at her.
"I didn't."
"I believe you."
"How?"
"Because whoever created it logged in using your credentials from a device in Marbella while you were in New York."
Ethan stepped closer.
"Could Beatriz have his password?"
Daniel shook his head.
"No."
Mara glanced at him.
"Could she access a device where it was saved?"
Daniel thought of his home office.
His laptop.
His tablet.
The phone he occasionally left charging on the kitchen counter.
"Yes."
Mara continued.
"The BMR account disabled four interior cameras."
"The ones near Isabella's room and the blue room."
"Exactly."
"What about the hidden camera?"
"I'm tracing it."
Daniel stared at the screen.
"Why would someone disable official cameras and install another?"
Jonah entered.
"Control."
They turned.
Jonah placed several photographs on the kitchen island.
"Official footage belongs to Daniel's system. A secret camera belongs to whoever installed it."
Daniel felt the meaning immediately.
"They wanted the only recording."
Jonah nodded.
"Possibly."
"For what?"
"No idea yet."
Ethan looked toward the terrace.
"Blackmail?"
"Could be."
Mara typed rapidly.
"Or leverage."
Daniel looked at her.
"Against whom?"
She did not answer.
Instead, she opened another screen.
"I found the hidden camera's network address."
Daniel moved closer.
"It isn't recording to your security server."
"Where does it send footage?"
"Encrypted cloud storage."
"Whose?"
"I'm working on that."
Ethan's phone buzzed.
He looked down.
"Lucia."
Daniel turned sharply.
"The former housekeeper?"
"She replied."
"What did she say?"
Ethan read the message twice.
His expression changed.
"She wants to meet."
"When?"
"Today."
"Where?"
"Not here."
Daniel took the phone.
The message was short.
I will talk, but not at the villa. Do not bring Beatriz. Please do not tell her where I live.
Daniel stared at the words.
Jonah whistled softly.
"That's fear."
Daniel handed the phone back.
"I'm going."
"No," Ethan said.
Daniel turned.
"What?"
"You stay with Isabella."
"Ethan."
"You spent months away while this happened."
The words hit hard.
Ethan did not soften them.
"If she wakes up and you're gone again, what do you think she learns?"
Daniel looked toward the staircase.
His anger collapsed into something heavier.
Guilt.
He nodded.
"You meet Lucia."
"I will."
"Record everything with permission."
"Obviously."
Jonah remained by the window.
"I want to ask Isabella one question."
Daniel's gaze hardened.
"No interrogation."
"Agreed."
"She's eight."
"I know."
"She's frightened."
"I know."
Daniel studied him.
"What question?"
Jonah looked toward the garden.
"I want to know whether Beatriz ever told her that if she talked, something would happen to you."
Daniel went still.
"Why?"
"Because children often stay silent to protect themselves."
He paused.
"But a child who has a loving parent she trusts may stay silent for another reason."
Daniel's chest tightened.
"To protect the parent."
Jonah nodded.
Upstairs, a floorboard creaked.
Isabella appeared at the top of the staircase.
Her hair was messy.
She wore one of Daniel's old company T shirts as a nightshirt.
She looked at the three strangers.
Then at her father.
"Is she gone?"
Daniel walked upstairs.
"Yes."
"For how long?"
"I don't know."
Isabella's eyes moved toward the front windows.
"She'll come back."
Daniel reached her.
"If she does, she won't come near you."
Isabella looked unconvinced.
Daniel crouched.
"Can I ask you something?"
She nodded.
"Did Beatriz ever tell you not to tell me?"
Isabella's face went blank.
Daniel felt his stomach drop.
"Sweetheart?"
She whispered, "She said you would lose everything."
Daniel could barely speak.
"What everything?"
"The company."
"What else?"
"The house."
She looked down.
"And me."
Daniel's blood turned cold.
"She said I'd lose you?"
Isabella shook her head.
"No."
She raised frightened eyes to his.
"She said you'd lose me."
Behind them, Mara's computer made a sharp sound.
Everyone turned.
Mara was staring at the screen.
"I found the storage destination."
Daniel descended two steps.
"Who owns it?"
Mara looked at him.
"BMR Consulting."
"You already said that."
"No."
She rotated the laptop.
"I found what BMR stands for."
On the screen was a corporate registration.
Beatriz Maria Ruiz Consulting SL.
Daniel read the name.
Once.
Twice.
Beatriz had created a company six months ago.
But the registered address was not hers.
It belonged to a law office in Gibraltar.
May you like
And listed beside Beatriz as company secretary was a name Daniel knew very well.
A man who had sat across from him at his Madrid investment meeting less than twenty four hours earlier.
