Chapter 2 - The Woman in the Footage

The first image on the hidden-camera archive was not Lily.

It was Elena.

Dante stood in the center of his daughter’s bedroom while one of his guards connected the tiny camera system to a secured laptop.

Meredith remained near the doorway between two guards.

Her face was colorless.

Lily sat on Dante’s bed with Bunny tucked beneath her chin.

The recording date appeared in the corner.

Three years earlier.

The night Elena died.

Dante stopped breathing.

At 8:41 p.m., Elena entered Lily’s nursery wearing the cream blouse and dark trousers Dante remembered from that evening. Lily had been one then. She was asleep in her crib.

Elena checked the hallway.

Then she walked directly toward the stuffed rabbit.

Bunny.

The same rabbit Lily was holding now.

Elena turned her back to the camera for several seconds.

When she faced it again, her eyes were wet.

She bent over the crib and kissed her daughter’s forehead.

Then she whispered something.

The microphone was weak.

The guard increased the volume.

Elena’s voice filled the room.

“If Mommy is wrong, none of this will matter.”

Dante’s hand tightened around the back of a chair.

Elena continued.

“But if I’m right, one day your father will need to know who was inside this house.”

She touched Bunny’s left ear.

Then left.

No one spoke.

The time stamp jumped forward.

9:06 p.m.

The nursery door opened again.

A woman stepped inside.

She was younger.

Her hair was darker.

She wore a black coat and no jewelry.

But Dante recognized her face immediately.

Meredith.

His new wife had been inside his daughter’s bedroom on the night his first wife died.

Three years before Meredith claimed they had ever met.

Dante slowly turned.

Meredith’s lips parted.

“Dante—”

“Don’t.”

One word.

Nothing more.

On the screen, the younger Meredith searched the nursery.

She opened drawers.

Looked behind books.

Checked beneath the crib mattress.

Then she picked up Bunny.

Lily made a frightened sound beside Dante.

“Daddy.”

He reached for her hand without looking away from the screen.

Meredith examined the rabbit, squeezed its body, then tossed it back into the crib.

She had missed whatever Elena had hidden.

At 9:11, Elena suddenly returned.

The two women froze when they saw each other.

The old microphone crackled.

Elena spoke first.

“You were told never to come here again.”

Meredith’s younger voice answered.

“You should have given him the ledger.”

Dante looked sharply at Meredith.

“What ledger?”

She stared at the floor.

The recording continued.

Elena stepped between Meredith and the crib.

“If Vittorio wants it, he can ask me himself.”

The room changed.

Dante’s uncle.

Vittorio Moretti.

The man who had managed Moretti family finances since Dante was nineteen.

The man who had stood beside Dante at Elena’s funeral.

On the screen, Meredith smiled without warmth.

“You don’t understand what you found.”

“I understand millions disappeared.”

“Elena.”

“I understand those accounts lead back to people wearing my husband’s name.”

Meredith lowered her voice.

“If Dante learns what his family has done, he will burn everything down.”

“Then perhaps it deserves to burn.”

The nursery door opened again.

A man entered.

Only his right hand appeared clearly on camera before the lights flickered.

A heavy black signet ring surrounded his finger.

Silver Moretti crest.

Dante knew that ring.

Every firstborn Moretti son had been given one for generations.

His father had worn one.

Dante wore one.

And Vittorio wore one.

The image froze.

Then the archive went black.

The next surviving clip began forty-three minutes later.

Elena was gone.

Meredith was gone.

The nursery was empty.

At 10:42 p.m., police records said Elena’s car left the highway.

The guard at the laptop swallowed.

“Sir, there’s more.”

A second camera had captured Meredith returning at 11:18 p.m.

After Elena was already reported dead.

She entered the nursery barefoot.

Her dress was torn at one shoulder.

There was blood on her sleeve.

She went directly to Bunny.

This time she ripped open the rabbit’s back seam.

But the compartment inside was empty.

Meredith stared at the toy for several seconds.

Then she whispered toward someone outside the frame.

“She moved it.”

A man answered from the hallway.

His voice was distorted.

“Then we find it before Dante does.”

The video ended.

Dante looked at Meredith.

His face had become frighteningly calm.

“You were here.”

Meredith said nothing.

“You knew Elena.”

Silence.

“You lied to me for three years.”

Her eyes filled.

“I lied about my name.”

Dante took one step toward her.

“Your name?”

She closed her eyes.

“When Elena knew me, I wasn’t Meredith Hale.”

Lily pressed closer to Dante.

Meredith opened her eyes again.

“My name was Mara Voss.”

One of the guards stiffened.

Dante knew the surname.

Everyone in his world did.

Voss Financial Investigations had disappeared after its founder was convicted of laundering money for organized syndicates across Europe.

Dante’s voice dropped.

“Why were you in my house that night?”

Meredith looked toward the frozen image of the Moretti ring.

“I came for the ledger.”

“Who sent you?”

She hesitated.

Then she whispered the answer that changed the room again.

“Your uncle Vittorio.”

Dante stared at her.

Meredith shook her head quickly.

“But Vittorio wasn’t the one who killed Elena.”

Dante’s eyes hardened.

“Then who did?”

Meredith looked past him.

Not at the guards.

Not at Lily.

At the security monitor mounted above the bedroom door.

Her expression changed.

Pure fear.

May you like

[COMPLETED] “GET YOUR HANDS OFF MY DRESS! YOU’RE NOTHING BUT AN OLD SEAM...

[COMPLETED] At the Mafia Boss's Engagement Party, I Served His Hungry So...

[COMPLETED] The Mafia Boss’s Fiancée Tried to Dismiss His Father’s Loyal...

“The man who killed Elena,” she whispered, “is still watching this room.”

And at that exact moment, every security screen in the mansion went black.