Chapter 3 - the missing device
Security searched the mansion for forty minutes.
Every exterior door had locked automatically during the power failure. No guest had arrived yet, and only fourteen employees were inside.
Yet the device was gone.
Diego reviewed the hallway camera footage in the security room. The recording showed the lights failing. For seven seconds, the image became distorted. When the emergency system activated, everyone appeared exactly where they had been.
Except one shadow near the service corridor.
“The camera was interfered with,” the security chief said.
“From inside the house?” Diego asked.
“It would require access to our network.”
Paulina sat at the far end of the room.
“This proves Marisol planned everything. She brought a device into the mansion, created a dramatic story, then arranged for it to disappear.”
Marisol stood beside Valentina, who had fallen asleep against her shoulder.
“You saw Diego take it from the clock.”
“I saw something. None of us examined it.”
Diego paused the footage.
A thin reflection appeared near Paulina’s wrist during the distorted frames.
“Show me your bracelet,” he said.
Paulina looked at him.
“What?”
“The emerald bracelet you were wearing in the foyer.”
She lifted her arm.
The bracelet was gone.
Paulina glanced down, appearing surprised.
“It must have fallen.”
Marisol’s voice was quiet.
“You had it before the lights went out.”
“Are you accusing me of stealing?”
“I’m saying your bracelet disappeared at the same moment as the device.”
Paulina stood.
“This humiliation ends now. Diego, either remove her from the mansion or I will leave.”
Diego looked at the sleeping child.
“Then leave.”
Paulina stared at him.
The security chief pretended to focus on the screen.
“You cannot be serious.”
“My mother left instructions involving Marisol and Valentina. Until I know why, they stay.”
“And our engagement?”
“Has nothing to do with this investigation.”
“It has everything to do with it. In six weeks, our families are merging their companies.”
“A merger can be delayed.”
Paulina approached him.
“My father has already transferred assets.”
“Then he can transfer them back.”
Her face remained composed, but her voice trembled.
“You are throwing away years of planning because a former servant arrived with a child.”
Diego stepped closer.
“Do not call Marisol a servant.”
“That is what she was.”
“She managed my mother’s foundation office.”
“And warmed your bed.”
Marisol flinched.
Diego’s expression became dangerous.
“Leave the room.”
Paulina looked toward the sleeping Valentina.
“You should order a paternity test before you destroy your future.”
“I intend to.”
Marisol lifted her head sharply.
Diego turned toward her.
“I need certainty.”
“You think I came here to lie?”
“I think someone has lied to both of us for four years.”
His tone was controlled, but the words still hurt.
Marisol adjusted Valentina in her arms.
“The test will prove what I already know.”
Paulina smiled faintly.
“Unless the child belongs to someone else.”
Diego opened the security-room door.
“You were asked to leave.”
Paulina walked past him.
At the doorway, she stopped beside Marisol.
“I hope you understand what happens when the test proves you are wrong.”
Marisol met her gaze.
“I understand what happens when it proves I am right.”
Paulina left.
Diego ordered security to place two guards outside the guest wing. Marisol protested that Valentina was not a prisoner.
“You’re not being watched,” he said. “You’re being protected.”
“From Paulina?”
“From whoever stole the device.”
Marisol lowered her voice.
“Those may be the same person.”
Diego glanced at the sleeping child.
“Why didn’t you come sooner?”
“Elena told me to wait.”
“My mother died three years ago.”
“She contacted me two days before the accident.”
Diego’s face tightened.
“What did she say?”
“That she had found the person who changed the medical records.”
“Who?”
“She refused to say over the phone. She told me the mansion was listening.”
Diego looked toward the cameras.
Marisol continued.
“After her funeral, a man came to my apartment. He had photographs of Valentina’s nursery and knew which park I visited.”
“Did he threaten you?”
“He placed an empty child’s shoe outside my door.”
Diego’s expression went cold.
“I left the city that night.”
“And the button?”
“It was sewn inside Valentina’s handbag.”
Valentina stirred.
Something metallic fell from the handbag onto the floor.
Not the button.
Paulina’s missing emerald bracelet.
Diego and Marisol stared at it.
Marisol stepped back.
“I have never touched that.”
Diego crouched and picked it up without using his bare hands.
Inside the bracelet’s clasp was a tiny electronic component.
The security chief examined it.
“This could disrupt a camera feed.”
Marisol looked toward the hallway.
“She put it in Valentina’s bag.”
Diego shook his head.
“Paulina never came close enough after the lights returned.”
“Then someone else did.”
The security chief’s phone rang.
He answered, listened, and turned toward Diego.
“We found the stolen device.”
May you like
“Where?”
“In Ms. Vega’s suitcase.”
