Chapter 5: The Digital Ghost
Chapter 5: The Digital Ghost
Friday night, Ethan met his lead systems engineer, David, in a secure server room at the company headquarters.
"The cameras in the house were disconnected from the local network, just like you asked, Boss," David explained, typing rapidly on a mechanical keyboard. "But the fail-safe protocol routed all the optical data straight into the encrypted Amazon Web Services cloud server. We have 4K video and audio for the last six months, timestamped and untouched."
"Pull up the footage from the days I was in Tokyo last month," Ethan commanded, his jaw clenched tight.
David ran a query, and a grid of video feeds populated the massive monitor. The foyer, the kitchen, the living room, the hallways.
Ethan watched in stony silence as the true nightmare of his daughter's life unfolded on screen. The moment his car left for the airport, Isabella’s demeanor changed. The footage showed her screaming at Ava, snatching books out of her hands, and forcing her to clean the massive house until past midnight.
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But there was more. Two days into his Tokyo trip, the front door camera caught a man entering the house. He was a local real estate developer, a man Ethan knew from the country club. The hallway cameras caught them stumbling into the master bedroom, laughing, while Ava was locked in the basement laundry room.
Ethan felt a cold, terrifying calm settle over his heart. He didn't just have evidence of abuse. He had the keys to Isabella’s total destruction.
