Chapter 2
Rebecca made a forensic copy of Leo’s tablet before opening the second recording.
Vincent sat across from her.
Emma Brooks was present with her own attorney now.
Rebecca had insisted on that.
“If this turns into an employment issue, criminal issue, or family accusation, Brooks does not sit here relying on your goodwill.”
Vincent disliked the implication.
He accepted it.
Leo’s first recording showed exactly what the ballroom guests had seen.
Bianca holding Emma against the chair.
The scissors opening.
Marcus standing several feet behind her.
Laughing.
That detail mattered.
Not because laughing was illegal.
Because Marcus was not surprised by what Bianca was doing.
He watched like a man observing something expected.
Then came the second recording.
Timestamp:
Nine days earlier.
The video was shaky.
Leo had apparently left his tablet propped against a stack of board-game boxes inside a sitting room at Vincent’s estate while recording himself building something.
The camera continued after he walked away.
Several minutes later, Bianca entered with Ruby.
Marcus followed.
Ruby was crying.
Bianca crouched in front of her.
“You need to stop changing the story.”
Ruby whispered something too quietly for the microphone.
Bianca’s voice sharpened.
“If someone asks why you’re upset, what do you say?”
Ruby stared at the floor.
Marcus answered for her.
“You say Emma Brooks keeps putting ideas in your head.”
Ruby shook her head.
Bianca grabbed her chin.
Not violently.
Firmly enough to make the child look up.
“Ruby.”
“I don’t want to.”
Marcus sighed.
“This is why everything becomes difficult.”
Ruby began crying harder.
Bianca said:
“Brooks has been turning you against your own mother.”
“No.”
“Say it.”
“No.”
The video shifted slightly when someone passed the table.
Then Marcus said something that made Rebecca pause the playback.
“Monday is all that matters.”
Vincent looked at her.
“What happens Monday?”
“We don’t know yet.”
She continued.
The final part of the clip was quieter.
Bianca said:
“If you keep protecting people who make me look bad, somebody else will pay for it.”
Ruby covered her face.
Then Leo returned to the room.
Bianca and Marcus immediately changed subjects.
The clip ended.
Vincent sat in silence.
He had expected theft.
A threat.
Maybe an admission that Bianca hurt Ruby.
Instead he had watched two adults rehearse a child.
Rebecca asked Emma Brooks:
“Did anyone accuse you of manipulating Ruby?”
“Bianca did.”
“When?”
“Three days after that video.”
“What happened?”
“She said I was encouraging Ruby to disrespect her.”
“Anything written?”
Brooks nodded.
“I received a warning from Marcus.”
Vincent turned.
“You received what?”
“A household conduct warning.”
Vincent had never seen it.
Brooks forwarded the email.
Marcus wrote that she was not to discuss parenting, discipline, or “comparisons between family children” with Ruby.
One sentence stood out:
Further interference may result in immediate termination for cause.
Vincent looked at Rebecca.
“Can he fire her?”
“No.”
Rebecca kept reading.
“Not under Brooks’s contract without your approval.”
“Then why threaten it?”
“That is another question.”
Vincent looked back toward the frozen video frame.
Ruby crying.
Bianca gripping her chin.
Marcus telling her Monday mattered.
The second video did not answer everything.
May you like
It made the original birthday attack stranger.
If Bianca’s problem was simply that Emma had “outshone” Ruby, why had Bianca been coaching Ruby to blame Emma Brooks nine days earlier?
