Chapter 11
They went upstairs.
“To steal something?” I asked.
Victor shook his head.
“To leave something.”
The figure disappeared from view.
A second camera showed them entering Victor’s study.
They remained inside for less than a minute.
Then they left through the same corridor and vanished into the snow.
Victor ordered Marco to secure the lower level and went upstairs.
I started after him.
“No,” he said.
“You think someone is following my daughter.”
“Which is why you stay here.”
“You don’t order me around.”
“This is not about authority.”
“It always is with men like you.”
His face tightened.
“What does that mean?”
“It means you decide what people should know, where they should stand, and what danger they’re allowed to understand.”
“Hannah—”
“My mother built her entire life around hiding something from me. You do not get to continue what she started.”
For a moment, we faced each other in silence.
Then Victor nodded.
“Stay behind me.”
We left Lily with Rosa and the doctor. I kissed her forehead twice before following Victor upstairs.
The mansion seemed different after the alarm.
The great rooms that had looked grand when I entered now seemed hollow and vulnerable. Snow blew through the broken foyer window. Security staff moved quietly through the corridors, sweeping glass and checking doors.
Victor’s study was at the end of a long hallway.
Nothing inside appeared disturbed.
May you like
The shelves remained filled with books. Papers lay neatly arranged on the desk. A fire burned low in the stone fireplace.
In the center of the desk sat a small cassette recorder.
