Chapter 2 - The Hidden Camera
“Don’t touch it.”
Marcus stopped three feet from the bookshelf.
Vanessa folded her arms.
“I’ve never seen that thing before.”
Marcus photographed the device before examining its network connection.
Sophie stayed against my chest.
My pediatrician, Dr. Laura Bennett, arrived twenty minutes later and examined her upstairs while I remained beside her.
There was mild redness on Sophie’s scalp.
A faint mark circled her upper arm.
Nothing catastrophic.
Nothing I could dismiss.
Laura documented both.
“Has she been unusually quiet recently?”
The question hit me.
“Yes.”
For almost two weeks, Sophie had become subdued whenever I left for work.
I had interpreted it as separation anxiety.
“She wakes up crying sometimes.”
Laura nodded without jumping to conclusions.
“Those things can have many causes. We document what we actually know.”
I appreciated that sentence.
Downstairs, Marcus had isolated the camera.
“It stores locally and uploads remotely.”
“To where?”
“Still tracing it.”
Vanessa laughed bitterly.
“You’re going to feel ridiculous when you realize this has nothing to do with me.”
I looked at her.
“Then you should want us to find out.”
She stopped laughing.
Marcus found the device registration.
Purchased seven months earlier.
Installed five months earlier.
Vanessa had moved into the mansion only three months ago after our engagement.
That immediately complicated my assumption.
“Who installed it?”
Marcus checked the device configuration.
The administrator account belonged to Sterling Residential Security.
My own household-security company.
Marcus went pale.
“That shouldn’t exist.”
“You run Sterling Residential Security.”
“I know.”
He examined the access history.
Someone had used an internal technician credential belonging to one of his employees.
Aaron Pike.
Aaron had worked on my properties for six years.
Marcus called him.
No answer.
Then Sophie reacted.
A ringtone sounded from Vanessa’s handbag.
Sophie stiffened instantly.
Her fingers dug into my shirt.
Vanessa reached for the bag.
“Leave it.”
She stared at me.
“It’s my phone.”
Marcus removed it only after Vanessa consented to show us the screen while her attorney was contacted.
The incoming caller displayed no name.
Just a number.
But the ringtone itself was distinctive.
Three soft piano notes.
Sophie began crying.
“No room.”
I looked at her.
“What room?”
Vanessa’s face changed.
Not much.
Enough.
Sophie pointed toward the foyer staircase.
“No room.”
Marcus quietly asked Vanessa what Sophie meant.
“I have absolutely no idea.”
Then he traced the hidden camera’s latest remote login.
It had occurred fourteen minutes before I arrived home.
The connection came from inside the mansion.
May you like
Specifically from the upstairs guest suite Vanessa used as her private office.
📖 The camera predated our engagement, but someone had accessed it from Vanessa’s room minutes before I came home—and Sophie was terrified of what happened upstairs. 👇
