Chapter 2
I did not open the memory card immediately.
That bothered Camille.
Good.
Fear works better when people do not know what you know.
First, Violet.
Nothing else mattered until she was found.
I sent twelve men through the estate.
Every room.
Every garden structure.
Every vehicle.
No shouting.
No panic.
Just search.
Henry stayed with me.
He refused to let go of the rabbit after I removed the card.
I gave it back.
One ear missing.
Still his sister’s.
“Why did Violet hide the card inside Bunny?”
He looked at Camille.
Then at me.
“Because Aunt Camille checked her pockets.”
My jaw tightened.
“When?”
“Yesterday.”
Yesterday.
Not tonight.
This had been going on longer than I knew.
“What happened?”
Henry explained in fragments.
Violet wandered into the sewing room while chasing the rabbit after Henry threw it badly.
She found Camille and Derek behind the hidden wall.
They were arguing.
Violet saw Camille take a black card from a little silver box and hide it beneath fabric inside the wall.
Then Violet made a sound.
They saw her.
Camille told her it was “grown-up business.”
Later, Violet stole the card.
Why?
Because she thought it belonged to me.
That simple.
She had seen my family crest printed on its case.
Then she hid it in the rabbit.
Camille noticed it missing.
The search began.
They questioned Violet.
She denied knowing anything.
Derek locked her in the service room “until she remembered.”
My hands went cold.
“How long?”
Henry whispered:
“Since lunch.”
Six hours.
A four-year-old.
Locked inside a hidden service passage for six hours because adults wanted a memory card.
I looked at Derek.
“You left my daughter alone in there?”
He snapped:
“She had water.”
That sentence nearly ended him.
Rafe caught my expression and stepped closer.
Good man.
Derek continued:
“She was safe.”
“No.”
My voice remained low.
“She was contained.”
Different word.
Different truth.
Then one of my men entered.
“Boss.”
I turned.
“We found her.”
Everything else disappeared.
“Where?”
He hesitated.
“The greenhouse.”
Alive.
Awake.
May you like
Terrified.
And hiding beneath a potting bench because she believed Camille was still looking for her.
