Chapter 3 - Thirty-Seven Days Was Only the Beginning
By midnight, the hospital had assigned a child protection specialist to Maya’s case.
Her name was Dr. Evelyn Shaw.
She spoke softly.
She never stood over Maya.
She sat at eye level and asked permission before every difficult question.
Maya answered some questions.
Others made her stare at the wall.
I learned quickly that silence could be an answer too.
Laura asked me to step into the hallway.
Marcus was waiting beside her.
His face told me whatever they had found was worse than expected.
“What happened?”
Marcus handed me a tablet.
“We expanded the archive search.”
The hidden camera system stored thirty-seven days locally.
Older footage was moved automatically to encrypted cold storage.
I had forgotten about that second layer.
Marcus had not.
“How far back?”
“Eleven months.”
My stomach tightened.
He pressed play.
The first clip showed Maya standing in the laundry room.
The date was seven months earlier.
Isabella dumped a basket of clothes onto the floor.
“Fold them again.”
“They’re already folded.”
“Not correctly.”
Maya looked toward the doorway.
“Daddy said I could finish my science project.”
Isabella’s expression hardened.
“Your father says many things when he isn’t here.”
The recording ended.
Marcus opened another.
Maya sat alone at the dining table while Isabella and Noah ate in the adjoining breakfast room.
A plate sat in front of Maya.
Nothing was on it.
I could barely breathe.
Another clip.
Isabella took Maya’s tablet.
Another.
She deleted a voicemail from Maya’s school.
Another.
She instructed a housekeeper not to speak privately with Maya.
Another.
Maya stood outside Isabella’s bedroom holding Noah at two in the morning.
“I think he’s sick.”
Isabella’s voice came through the locked door.
“Then handle it.”
I lowered the tablet.
“How did no one tell me?”
Marcus looked ashamed.
“Two staff members resigned.”
“Why?”
“We’re locating them now.”
Laura answered.
“One left suddenly four months ago.”
“Elena?”
Our former nanny.
Laura nodded.
“She reportedly told the agency she would never return to the property.”
I remembered Isabella telling me Elena had stolen jewelry.
There had been no police report.
Isabella said she wanted to avoid scandal.
At the time, I had believed her.
Now every convenient explanation felt poisoned.
Marcus opened a final file.
“This is what worries me most.”
The footage showed Isabella in my study.
She was speaking to someone on the phone.
“I need him distracted until the acquisition closes.”
She listened.
Then smiled.
“Once Nathan signs the deed amendment, we move to phase two.”
My skin went cold.
Phase two.
Laura replayed the clip.
“Do you recognize who she’s speaking with?”
“No.”
“We’re pulling phone records.”
I stared through the hallway window into Maya’s hospital room.
She was asleep now.
A stuffed bear lay beside her.
A nurse had brought it from the children’s ward.
She looked peaceful for the first time all day.
Then Marcus spoke.
“Nathan, there’s more.”
I turned.
“We checked Isabella’s financial activity.”
“And?”
“She opened a private account eight months ago.”
“How much?”
“Nearly six hundred thousand dollars passed through it.”
I stared at him.
“From where?”
“Several shell companies.”
Laura folded her arms.
“One of those companies has done consulting work for the seller in your acquisition.”
That made no sense.
Then it made far too much sense.
My business deal.
My marriage.
Maya’s trust.
The mansion deed.
They might not be separate problems.
Someone had used my family to reach my company.
I looked again through the glass.
Maya moved in her sleep.
Even unconscious, she pulled the blanket closer around herself.
I lowered my voice.
“Find out who Isabella was talking to.”
Marcus nodded.
“And Nathan?”
“Yes?”
“Until we know, assume someone else is involved.”
May you like
For the first time that night, I understood that bringing Isabella out of the house had not ended the danger.
It had merely exposed the first person standing inside it.
