Chapter 9 - The Second Camera

Thomas found another recording device.

Not part of the mansion system.

A tiny camera hidden inside a smoke detector facing the upper landing.

Michael stared.

“Who installed it?”

Thomas checked the hardware.

“Professional surveillance equipment.”

“Connected where?”

“Wireless relay.”

“To who?”

“We’re tracing it.”

The hidden camera had captured what the main staircase camera missed.

Andrew entering the house at 3:04 p.m.

Sophia arriving at 3:11.

Andrew speaking with her in Michael’s office.

No audio.

Then Andrew handed Sophia something.

A small vial.

Emily felt cold.

“What is that?”

Police enhanced the footage.

Sophia placed the vial in her pocket.

Minutes later she positioned herself above Emily on the staircase.

She never used it.

At least not before the shove.

Detective Torres questioned Sophia again.

She broke.

“It was supposed to go in Emily’s tea.”

Michael stared through the interview-room glass.

“What?”

Sophia cried.

“Andrew said it would only make her dizzy.”

“Why?”

“So she’d fall?”

Sophia covered her face.

“He said if she fell naturally, nobody would blame anyone.”

Michael felt nauseated.

“And when you didn’t use it?”

“She saw me looking for the red folder.”

“So you confronted her.”

“Yes.”

“And pushed her.”

“Yes.”

“Why frame her afterward?”

Sophia’s crying intensified.

“Andrew told me if anything went wrong, Michael would believe me.”

Silence.

Michael looked away.

Andrew had known him perfectly.

Known his reflex.

Known he would protect his sister.

Known Emily’s warnings had been dismissed before.

Michael had not merely been manipulated.

He had been predictable.

“What was in the vial?” Torres asked.

“Sophia says Andrew called it a sedative.”

The lab tested it.

Not fatal.

But dangerous for pregnancy.

A benzodiazepine concentration capable of causing severe dizziness and loss of coordination.

Andrew was arrested that evening.

He denied everything.

He claimed Sophia planted the vial.

Then investigators traced the hidden camera relay.

To Harold Mercer’s law office.

Harold had been watching.

Why?

Harold finally requested a deal.

He gave prosecutors access to encrypted files.

Inside were years of recordings.

Andrew and Harold had monitored family members.

Sophia.

Jonathan.

Michael.

Even Emily.

The purpose was leverage.

Harold called it “risk management.”

Emily called it what it was.

“Blackmail.”

One recording showed Andrew talking with Harold two days before Jonathan’s death.

Andrew said, “He won’t stop.”

Harold replied, “Then the board removes him.”

Andrew: “He’ll take the records outside.”

Harold: “Not if he doesn’t make it to Monday.”

Michael stopped the audio.

“What happened Monday?”

Paul Garner answered.

“Jonathan was scheduled to meet federal investigators.”

He died Sunday night.

Detective Torres asked, “Cause of death?”

“Cardiac arrest.”

Jonathan took medication for arrhythmia.

Police obtained pharmacy records.

One prescription had been refilled three days before his death.

Picked up by:

Harold Mercer.

Harold claimed Jonathan asked him.

No written proof.

The remaining pills had been discarded after Jonathan died.

Then forensic investigators found something in Jonathan’s hidden safe.

A strand of hair taped to a card.

Label:

IF I DIE BEFORE MONDAY, TEST THIS.

Michael stared.

His father had anticipated his death.

The hair was sent to toxicology.

Results would take days.

Meanwhile Emily was discharged.

She chose not to return to the mansion.

She went with Mason to Rachel’s home.

Michael asked whether he could visit.

“Not tonight.”

He nodded.

“When?”

“I don’t know.”

“Okay.”

For once, Michael did not negotiate.

He went home alone.

The staircase looked different.

The place where Emily fell.

The banister where her shoulder struck.

The camera above.

He sat on the lower landing until midnight.

Then Thomas approached.

“Sir.”

“What?”

“We traced something from Harold’s archive.”

Michael stood.

A folder labeled MASON.

Inside were school schedules.

Photographs.

Medical records.

Michael went cold.

“Why were they watching my son?”

Thomas opened an audio file.

Andrew’s voice:

“If Emily won’t cooperate after the baby is born, Mason gives us leverage.”

Michael’s blood ran cold.

Emily’s unborn child controlled Jonathan’s trust.

But Mason was Michael’s first child.

That should have meant the trust already belonged to him.

Except Mason was adopted.

Michael had adopted him after marrying Emily when Mason was two.

Jonathan’s trust specified first biological child.

Andrew knew.

He had planned to exploit the difference.

But one document in the MASON folder changed everything.

A private DNA report.

Michael read the result twice.

Probability of biological paternity:

99.98%.

Michael stared.

“That’s impossible.”

Emily had told him Mason’s biological father was a man named Eric Lane who died before Mason was born.

May you like

My Husband Slapped Me Twice in His Jewelry Store—Then I Discovered He'd...

My husband slapped me twice in his luxury jewelry store while his mistress smiled. I left my wedding ring on the counter and warne...

My Husband Slapped Me Twice in His Jewelry Store—Then I Found the Forged...

My husband slapped me twice in front of his mistress, never realizing I had already discovered a forged document giving him contro...

THE SIGNATURE SHE NEVER GAVE

My husband hit me twice in his luxury jewelry store while his mistress stood watching. I didn't scream. I didn't fight back. I lef...

Yet the DNA report said Michael was Mason’s biological father.

If Michael had unknowingly fathered Mason years before he and Emily supposedly met, what secret had Emily herself kept from him for seven years?