Chapter 2 - Six Weeks of Silence
Vittorio carried Lucy upstairs himself.
He didn’t give Bianca another look.
Lucy clung to his shirt while Emma followed several steps behind, still shaking from what had happened.
Marcus remained downstairs nursing his injured jaw.
Bianca stayed beside the ottoman.
For the first time since entering Vittorio Romano’s life, she had no control over the room.
Upstairs, Vittorio cleaned Lucy’s face carefully.
The food came away.
The fear did not.
Whenever footsteps sounded in the hallway, Lucy tightened her fingers around his shirt.
That frightened Vittorio more than the video.
Children that young did not learn fear from one bad morning.
Emma’s phone contained folders organized by date.
Not one recording.
Dozens.
Bianca pushing away Lucy’s breakfast.
Bianca deliberately waking her from naps.
Bianca shutting doors in Emma’s face whenever Vittorio called home.
Marcus standing nearby during several incidents.
Sometimes he watched.
Sometimes he checked the hallway first.
Sometimes he pointed toward the security cameras before Bianca acted.
Vittorio had spent months believing Lucy’s recent crying spells were separation anxiety.
Bianca had reinforced that explanation constantly.
She had persuaded him Lucy became difficult whenever he traveled.
She had encouraged more travel rather than less.
And Vittorio had believed her.
Emma had started recording after realizing something strange.
Every serious incident happened when the mansion’s security system was temporarily offline.
Maintenance failures.
Network resets.
Camera updates.
All of them had been approved by Marcus.
Vittorio finally understood why Marcus had tried so desperately to take the phone.
The footage implicated Bianca.
The camera records might implicate Marcus.
But Emma had discovered something else.
Three nights earlier, while cleaning the downstairs office, she had found a printed security-access log left beside the shredder.
Marcus had not merely switched cameras off.
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Someone had been entering Lucy’s bedroom while Vittorio was away.
And according to the timestamps, that person usually entered after midnight.
