Chapter 10 - WHAT THE CAMERA SAW
Robert denied planting the camera.
Ethan believed him.
Not because he trusted his father.
Because Robert looked genuinely terrified when Ethan showed him the cufflink.
“I haven't been inside Olivia's apartment in years.”
Olivia stared at him from the hospital bed.
“You've been there?”
Robert lowered his eyes.
“Once.”
“When?”
“When Lucy was a baby.”
Olivia's face hardened.
“You stood outside.”
“I went inside after you left.”
“What for?”
“To retrieve a letter.”
Ethan clenched his jaw.
“Which letter?”
“The first one addressed to you.”
Olivia turned away.
Ethan dropped the cufflink onto the bedside table.
“How did this end up there now?”
“I don't know.”
Mason entered carrying a laptop.
“We recovered footage.”
Everyone turned.
“How much?”
“Seven weeks.”
Ethan looked at Lucy.
She was sitting in the corner.
“Lucy, maybe you should wait outside.”
“No.”
He almost argued.
Then he remembered how many adults had made decisions for her without asking.
“All right.”
Mason connected the laptop to a television.
The first clips showed ordinary life.
Olivia writing.
Lucy doing homework.
Meals.
Phone calls.
Then Mason advanced to a recording from three months earlier.
Olivia sat at the table.
The apartment door opened.
Victoria entered.
No knock.
No invitation.
She wore a cream coat and carried a leather folder.
Lucy stared at the screen.
“I was at school.”
Olivia nodded.
Victoria's recorded voice filled the room.
“You look worse.”
Olivia replied.
“Get out.”
Victoria sat.
“I came to help.”
“You came to threaten me.”
“I came to prevent unnecessary pain.”
Victoria opened the folder.
“This declares Aaron Blake to be Lucy's biological father.”
Olivia laughed bitterly.
“He's dead.”
“Which makes him unlikely to object.”
Ethan's hands curled.
Victoria continued.
“Sign it.”
“No.”
“You are dying.”
“Not fast enough for you?”
Victoria smiled.
“Your daughter needs stability.”
“She has stability.”
“She has a sick mother and no legal father.”
“She has Ethan.”
“Ethan is marrying me.”
“For now.”
Victoria's smile disappeared.
Then she leaned forward.
“If you tell him, you will destroy his family.”
Olivia stared at her.
“His family destroyed mine.”
Victoria closed the folder.
“Robert made his choice.”
“So did you.”
“Yes.”
Victoria stood.
“And I would make it again.”
Lucy sucked in a breath.
Ethan felt Mason glance toward him.
The video continued.
Olivia asked one question.
“Why him?”
Victoria stopped near the door.
“What?”
“Why did you want Ethan so badly?”
For the first time, Victoria's face on the recording became emotional.
“Because he was supposed to be mine.”
Olivia stared at her.
“People aren't property.”
Victoria stepped closer.
“You took something I had spent my entire life preparing for.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Our families intended us to marry before Ethan ever met you.”
Olivia almost smiled.
“Ethan didn't know that.”
“He didn't need to.”
“You're insane.”
Victoria leaned close.
“No.”
Her voice became soft.
“I was patient.”
Then she left.
The room remained silent.
Mason advanced the recording.
Four nights later, another visitor entered.
Dana Cross.
She went directly to the smoke detector.
Removed the camera.
Changed the memory card.
Then left.
Except she had made a mistake.
She had inserted the new card before deleting the old footage from the camera's internal backup.
The next recording came one week later.
Olivia was asleep.
The front door opened.
A man entered.
Lucy stared at him.
“I know him.”
Ethan looked sharply at her.
“Who?”
“He came to our school once.”
“Name?”
“I don't know.”
The man searched Olivia's bedroom.
Then retrieved the red metal box from beneath the bed.
As he turned toward the camera, his face became clear.
Robert whispered.
“Oh God.”
Ethan looked at him.
“You know him.”
Robert nodded.
“That's Graham Hale.”
Victoria's father.
The seventy-four-year-old chairman of Hale Holdings.
The man who had supposedly been recovering from a stroke in Switzerland for the past six months.
Mason froze the image.
Graham Hale stood inside Olivia's apartment holding the missing red box.
Very much alive.
May you like
Very much healthy.
And very much involved.
