Chapter 2 - The Weeping Witness
Before Serena could utter another panicked defense, a faint, choked sob echoed from the grand oak staircase above.
Everyone froze.
Victor turned his head sharply toward the upper landing. Standing near the wrought-iron banister was Maria, the estate's senior housemaid. Her hands were clenched tightly into the fabric of her black-and-white uniform apron, her eyes wide with a terror so profound she looked ready to bolt.
"Maria," Victor called out, his voice sharp. "What are you doing down here? Weren't you scheduled to clean the east wing?"
Maria swallowed hard, her whole body shaking as she took a slow, hesitant step down the first stair. She looked at Serena—who was now glaring at her with a look of pure, murderous hatred—and then back down at Victor.
"Sir..." Maria whispered, her voice trembling so badly the words barely carried across the foyer. "I couldn't stay quiet anymore. Not after what I just saw down here."
Serena’s eyes bulged. She took a sharp step toward the stairs, her voice dropping into a venomous hiss. "Maria, you stupid, uneducated girl. You better watch your mouth right now, or you'll be out on the street with zero references before the hour is up."
"Enough!" Victor thundered, the command echoing off the vaulted ceiling like a gunshot. He turned his gaze back to the terrified housemaid. "Come down here, Maria. Right now. And tell me what you meant by what you whispered upstairs."
Maria descended the remaining steps with agonizing slowness, her head bowed. When she reached the marble floor, she didn't look at Serena or Victor; she looked directly at Lily, who was cradling the whimpering toddler.
"This wasn't the first time, Mr. Blackwood," Maria said, a tear finally breaking free and tracking down her cheek.
Victor’s brow furrowed deeply. His gaze narrowed. "What do you mean, it wasn't the first time? What else happened in this house?"
"Ms. Vance... she didn't just twist Ethan’s arm today because he dropped his toy," Maria confessed, her voice breaking. "She’s been doing things for months. Ever since she moved into the master suite, whenever you were away on international flights, she treated the boy like a nuisance. She locked him in the walk-in pantry for hours because he wouldn't stop crying. She threw away his favorite blankets. And last week... last week she pushed him down the nursery hallway because he soiled his clothes before her bridal fitting."
The foyer plunged into an absolute, suffocating vacuum of sound.
Serena’s face lost every remaining trace of color. She staggered backward, her high heel catching on the edge of a Persian rug, causing her to stumble against the mahogany console table. "It's a lie! She's lying! Maria is conspiring with the nanny to ruin me! You know how unstable the staff is around here!"
"Shut your mouth, Serena," Victor said. His voice was no longer loud. It was terrifyingly, unnaturally quiet. He pulled his smartphone from his breast pocket with one hand, his thumb swiping across the screen with brutal speed. "Maria, are there security logs or recordings of any of these incidents?"
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"The hallway cameras," Maria blurted out quickly. "The ones Ms. Vance forced the IT technician to disable this afternoon... she didn't realize the backup server in the basement runs on an independent power grid. If you plug a master diagnostic key into the basement terminal, you can pull every single deleted clip from the last three months."
Victor looked down at his phone, punched a direct speed-dial code, and held the device to his ear. "Marcus? Get the private security detail and a federal digital forensics team down to my estate within twenty minutes. Bring the master decryption rig. We're seizing all local hard drives."
