Chapter 4
The first thing the responding officer did was separate the adults.
Nora gave a straightforward account of the slap while an officer photographed the mark on her cheek with her consent. Gabriel described what the garden clips showed. Vivian insisted the maid had created a hostile environment and that the children had become difficult to manage.
The officer did not declare anybody guilty. He took statements, noted the footage, discussed evidence preservation, and explained how to obtain a report number. A child welfare referral would be made because the allegations went beyond the assault on Nora.
That uncertainty frightened Gabriel more than instant reassurance would have. He could not buy an immediate answer, and the children needed one.
His attorney, Dana Alvarez, arrived before sunset. Dana listened without interrupting, then asked whether Vivian had legal parental authority over Lily and Owen.
"No adoption," Gabriel said. "I'm their father and sole legal guardian."
"Then you can decide who cares for them while this is reviewed. Keep your wife away from them tonight, and don't coach their statements. We need independent professionals."
Gabriel told Vivian to stay at the estate's guest cottage and not contact the children. She refused at first, then agreed after Dana explained that any further incident could be documented. Gabriel arranged for the children to sleep at his sister's nearby home only if they wanted to go. Lily asked to remain in her own bedroom with Nora close by. He honored that choice and stayed upstairs himself.
Before going upstairs, Gabriel walked through the kitchen and asked the staff to stop discussing the incident within earshot of the children. He did not ask them to pretend nothing happened. He simply wanted Lily and Owen to eat dinner without hearing their fear debated by strangers.
Nora set out familiar food: grilled cheese cut into triangles, apple slices, and a bowl of tomato soup. Lily ate one triangle and pushed the rest aside. Owen kept his bear on the chair next to him, turning its face toward the door whenever footsteps passed. Gabriel noticed the gesture, but didn't ask why the bear needed to watch the entrance.
When Nora offered to clear the plates, Lily asked to take hers away herself. Her hands shook a little carrying it to the sink, yet she smiled when Gabriel thanked her. It was a tiny decision, almost nothing beside the police visit, but the child had spent weeks having choices taken away. Nora made a quiet promise to leave room for the small ones.
Nora used the quiet to check the memory card's date folders. There were six recent recordings involving Vivian and the children, not just the two Gabriel had seen. One showed Lily stepping backward when Vivian reached for her. Another showed Owen waiting alone outside the blue room while the garden lights came on.
"It happened more than once," Nora told Dana.
Dana nodded. "Preserve the original. Don't edit the files. Write down exactly when and how you found them."
Nora did. She documented Lily bringing the card, her use of a laptop, the copy she made, and each time she had handled the device. Dana arranged for a neutral digital forensic specialist to acquire a verified copy the next day. The lawyer did not pretend that a memory card was magic. Its contents had to be authenticated, placed in context, and protected from claims of tampering.
When Nora stepped into the hall, she found Lily sitting beside the blue room door. The little girl had removed her pink shoes and lined them up carefully, heel to heel.
"You don't have to be here," Nora said.
"I want to show you something."
Lily pointed to the lower corner of the doorframe. Three short pencil marks had been drawn near the floor.
"Those are my days," she said.
Nora knelt. "Days what, honey?"
"When I got put in here. I counted because I didn't want to forget."
Nora's throat tightened. She photographed the marks and the door without touching either.
"Did anybody else know?" she asked.
"Mr. Miles brought me water one time." Lily rubbed her eyes. "He told me to stop making trouble for Daddy."
So Miles wasn't merely taking orders from Vivian about the cameras. He had known about the locked room, and he had spoken directly to Lily.
Nora went downstairs to tell Gabriel. Before she reached the study, she heard Miles speaking through the partially open service entrance.
"I understand," he said into his phone. "The card is out. But the reports are already filed. We just have to get through Friday."
Nora stopped breathing.
May you like
Friday was three days away.
And she had no idea what was supposed to happen then.
