Chapter 3 - The Second Camera.
Nathan downloaded the video to an encrypted folder before opening it.
Lauren sat beside him on the hotel sofa with a blanket around her shoulders, her injured leg elevated on a cushion.
The file was forty-seven seconds long.
The first ten seconds showed the same confrontation they had already seen.
Ashley stepped close.
Lauren backed away.
The kick came quickly.
Then Ashley's little spin beneath the chandelier.
But the recording continued.
That was the difference.
After Ashley dropped to the floor and cried that Lauren had pushed her, Nathan rushed into frame.
He knelt beside Lauren.
Ashley kept talking.
Then, at the far edge of the image, someone appeared on the upper balcony.
Evelyn.
Lauren leaned toward the screen.
"She was already there."
Nathan replayed it.
His mother stood behind the railing above the foyer, partially concealed by a column.
She had a clear view of Ashley.
A clear view of Lauren.
A clear view of everything.
Yet when Evelyn entered the foyer minutes later, she had asked what happened.
Nathan froze the image.
"She saw it."
Lauren's voice was quiet.
"Yes."
"And she let Ashley lie."
He said nothing.
Lauren watched his expression close in on itself.
Nathan's loyalty to his mother had never been simple.
Evelyn had raised him after his father died unexpectedly when Nathan was twenty-one.
She had kept the family company from collapsing.
She had financed his graduate degree while simultaneously demanding that he work every holiday and return every favor.
Nathan respected her.
He loved her.
And he had spent years learning that disagreeing with Evelyn always came with a cost.
Lauren touched his arm.
"I'm sorry."
Nathan shook his head.
"Don't apologize for what she did."
He enlarged the balcony image.
Evelyn's face was visible for only a moment.
She was not shocked.
She was watching.
That disturbed Lauren more than anything.
"Who sent this?"
Nathan looked at the metadata.
The clip had been exported from Camera Fourteen, a small ceiling unit positioned above the service corridor.
Unlike the foyer system, Camera Fourteen was not integrated into the decorative wall tablet.
It belonged to the estate's older security network.
Only staff and the house manager normally accessed it.
"Caleb," Nathan said.
Lauren frowned.
"You think he sent it?"
"Either him or someone using his system."
Nathan typed another message to the unknown number.
WE HAVE THE FILE.
WHO ARE YOU?
This time, the answer came almost immediately.
YOU SHOULD ASK MARIA WHAT SHE HEARD BEFORE THE KICK.
Lauren knew Maria Santos as one of the senior housekeepers.
She was in her late fifties, warm without being intrusive, and had once spent twenty minutes helping Lauren repair a broken necklace before a charity dinner.
Nathan stared at the message.
"Maria was working tonight."
Lauren nodded.
"Do you have her number?"
"No."
"Can you get it?"
Nathan opened his contacts, then stopped.
"If my mother is monitoring staff calls, contacting Maria could put her in the middle."
Lauren looked at him.
"She's already in the middle if she saw or heard something."
Nathan knew she was right.
He called Caleb instead.
The estate manager answered on the fourth ring.
"Mr. Mitchell."
Nathan placed the phone on speaker.
"Caleb, was Camera Fourteen working tonight?"
A pause.
"I believe so."
"Did you export a clip from it?"
Another pause.
"Sir, I think you should speak with Mrs. Mitchell."
Nathan's expression hardened.
"I'm speaking with you."
Caleb lowered his voice.
"I can't discuss the security system."
"You manage the security system."
"Not anymore."
Nathan sat forward.
"What does that mean?"
"Mrs. Mitchell suspended my access twenty minutes ago."
Lauren exchanged a glance with Nathan.
"Why?"
Caleb hesitated.
"She said there had been a breach."
"Did you delete the foyer archive?"
"No."
"Do you know who did?"
The silence stretched.
Nathan spoke more softly.
"Caleb, Lauren was hurt tonight."
"I know."
"Then tell me the truth."
Caleb exhaled.
"The administrator login came from Mrs. Mitchell's personal tablet."
Lauren's fingers tightened around the blanket.
Nathan looked toward the dark city beyond the window.
"Was she holding it?"
"I don't know."
"Where was the tablet?"
"In her sitting room."
"Who had access to the room?"
Caleb's answer was barely audible.
"Miss Grant."
Nathan stood abruptly.
"Where is Ashley now?"
"Still at the estate."
"And my mother?"
"With her."
"Where is Maria?"
Caleb did not answer.
"Caleb."
"She left early."
"Why?"
"Mrs. Mitchell dismissed her."
Lauren felt a chill travel across her shoulders.
"Tonight?"
"About fifteen minutes after you left."
Nathan stared at the phone.
"What reason did she give?"
"Insubordination."
"What did Maria do?"
Caleb's voice dropped even further.
"She refused to hand over her phone."
The call ended suddenly.
Nathan looked at the screen.
"He hung up."
A second later, a text from Caleb arrived.
DO NOT CALL ME AGAIN TONIGHT.
Lauren read it twice.
"We need to find Maria."
Nathan nodded.
He called his private investigator, a former corporate security specialist named Owen Price who occasionally handled sensitive matters for his firm.
Owen answered immediately.
Nathan gave him Maria's full name, the estate address, and the limited information they had.
"Find her, but don't approach until I tell you."
Owen promised to call back.
The hotel suite became silent again.
Lauren looked at the paused security image on Nathan's laptop.
Evelyn watched from the balcony.
Ashley stood below her.
The entire scene suddenly looked less like a spontaneous confrontation and more like something staged inside a theater.
"Why would your mother protect her?"
Nathan sat beside Lauren again.
"The merger."
"A business plan from years ago cannot explain this."
"Maybe it can."
He rubbed his thumb along the edge of the laptop.
"The Grant family still owns thirty-two percent of Mitchell Aerospace Holdings."
Lauren knew Nathan's company had complex family ownership, but she had never studied the details.
"And?"
"My mother's voting control depends on a partnership agreement with Ashley's father."
Lauren stared at him.
"So if their families fight, your mother could lose control of the company?"
"Potentially."
"And she watched Ashley hurt me because she was afraid of a boardroom problem?"
Nathan's face tightened.
"I don't know."
Lauren leaned back against the sofa.
"I think you do."
Before he could respond, his phone rang.
Owen.
Nathan answered.
"That was fast."
"I found Maria's address."
"Is she home?"
"No."
Nathan stood.
"Where is she?"
Owen's voice changed.
"That's the problem."
Lauren sat forward.
"What problem?"
"Her neighbor says a black SUV picked her up about an hour ago."
Nathan's expression went cold.
"Did she leave willingly?"
"The neighbor couldn't tell."
"Any plate?"
"Partial only."
Owen paused.
"But there is something else."
Nathan waited.
"The SUV is registered to a corporate fleet."
"Whose?"
Owen answered.
"Grant Development Group."
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