Chapter 9 - The Camera in the HallI thought I knew my house.
I thought I knew every room, every lock, every system.
But Sarah had known me better.
Years before she died, she had insisted on installing security cameras in the common areas after a burglary scare in the neighborhood. I had forgotten most of them existed. Eleanor clearly had too.
My head of security, Marcus Vale, arrived before noon.
He had worked private protection before joining Sterling Holdings. He rarely looked surprised.
That morning, he did.
“You need to see this,” he said.
We watched the hallway footage in my office.
Date after date.
Maya carrying food toward the pantry.
Eleanor taking plates from her hands.
Maya standing outside the dining room while laughter poured from inside.
Eleanor gripping her arm near the staircase.
Maya flinching when Eleanor raised a hand.
My stomach turned.
Then Marcus pulled up footage from the day before.
Eleanor stood in the upstairs hallway with Maya’s pink blanket in her hand.
Sarah’s blanket.
The one Maya slept with when storms frightened her.
Eleanor dropped it into a black trash bag.
Maya ran after her, crying.
No audio, but I could read my daughter’s mouth.
Please.
Eleanor shoved the bag at a houseman and pointed toward the garage.
Maya sank to the floor.
I pressed my fist against my mouth.
Marcus looked away.
“There’s more,” he said.
He opened another file.
This one showed Eleanor in my office.
At my desk.
Trying combinations on the safe.
My eyes sharpened.
“When?”
“Three nights ago.”
The footage showed her holding a folder, photographing documents with her phone.
Daniel leaned forward.
“Do we know what she accessed?”
I already knew.
The trust papers.
Sarah’s protections.
Maya’s inheritance.
Eleanor had not only mistreated my daughter.
She had been planning something.
Something bigger.
Something financial.
And suddenly the entire shape of her cruelty changed.
May you like
She had not wanted Maya obedient.
She had wanted Maya gone.
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