Chapter 4 - the three missing minutes
Marcus arrived less than an hour later.
Madison attempted to stop him at the door.
“You are no longer representing this household,” she said.
Marcus, a tall man with silver at his temples and a leather case in one hand, looked past her toward Emily.
“My client appears to disagree.”
“You represented Thomas.”
“And after Thomas died, Emily became the executor and controlling beneficiary of the Hart estate.”
“She is medically compromised.”
“Then I assume you have a court order declaring her incompetent.”
Madison said nothing.
Marcus stepped around her.
Emily had never been so relieved to see anyone.
He knelt beside Lily first.
“Hello, Miss Hart.”
Lily wiped her face.
“Aunt Madison says I’m not a Hart.”
Marcus glanced at Madison.
“Your adoption certificate says otherwise.”
“Certificates can be challenged,” Madison replied.
“Fraudulent custody petitions can also be challenged.”
Madison left the room without another word.
Marcus waited until she disappeared upstairs.
“Pack essentials,” he told Emily. “I will arrange accessible transport.”
Emily placed the memory card in his hand.
“We need to see this first.”
Marcus inserted it into his laptop.
The card contained one video file.
The timestamp showed the night of Emily’s accident.
Emily remembered fragments.
She had been returning from a charity board meeting. It had rained heavily. She had turned into the driveway, seen something blocking the path, and stepped out of the car.
Then darkness.
The police report concluded that she had slipped on wet stone near the retaining wall and struck the side of her head. No witness had come forward. The active exterior cameras had supposedly failed during the storm.
Marcus opened the file.
The video began at 9:41 p.m.
Emily’s car entered the driveway.
A dark figure stood near the wall.
The person wore a hooded raincoat and shiny black shoes.
Emily stepped from the vehicle.
The figure moved toward her.
Then the video jumped.
Three minutes were missing.
When the recording resumed, Emily lay motionless beside the driveway. The hooded figure dragged a metal object toward the garage and disappeared.
Madison’s car entered two minutes later.
She stepped out, looked directly at Emily, and did not immediately call for help.
Instead, she walked toward the garage.
She returned carrying a folder.
Only then did she call emergency services.
Lily covered her mouth.
Marcus paused the video.
“What was the metal object?” he asked.
Emily searched her memory.
“There was a portable barrier near the wall because the stonework was being repaired.”
“The report said you tripped over it.”
“I never reached it.”
Marcus replayed the moment before the missing section.
The figure lifted one arm.
The image blurred.
No direct contact was visible, but the movement was deliberate.
“Someone edited the original recording,” Marcus said.
“Who had access?”
“Thomas designed the house system. After his death, administrative control should have transferred to you.”
“Madison changed the passwords.”
“Then we need the server.”
“It is in the room behind Thomas’s study.”
Lily pointed upward.
“That’s where the man talks.”
Marcus closed the laptop.
“We leave now. We give this card to the police, and they obtain a warrant.”
Emily looked toward the hallway.
“Madison will destroy the server before the police arrive.”
“We cannot risk confronting whoever is upstairs.”
“I am not leaving without the adoption file.”
“I have certified copies.”
“The original includes Thomas’s handwritten statement.”
Marcus’s expression changed.
“What statement?”
“The night before the adoption hearing, Thomas wrote Lily a letter. He placed it inside the file and sealed it. He said she could read it when she was old enough to question whether she belonged.”
“That letter could destroy Madison’s claim.”
“That is why she took it.”
A door closed upstairs.
Then came the sound of furniture moving.
Marcus stood.
“They are already clearing the room.”
Emily unlocked her wheelchair.
“You take the stairs. Lily stays with me.”
“No.”
“Marcus, the elevator opens directly beside Thomas’s study. Madison believes she controls the code.”
“She does.”
Emily held up her phone.
“Not anymore.”
During breakfast, while Madison had been focused on the unsigned power of attorney, Emily had photographed the master code reflected in the glass of Madison’s watch.
She entered it.
The elevator doors opened.
Lily stepped inside beside her.
Marcus hesitated, then joined them.
As the elevator rose, a faint smell entered the cabin.
May you like
Smoke.
When the doors opened, black smoke was curling from beneath the door at the end of the hall.
