Chapter 5 - The Hidden Surveillance
Marcus flinched, his hand tightening around his weapon. But Dominic wasn't looking at him; he was looking at the small brass security toggle embedded in the wall beside the desk.
"Vince," Dominic called out.
From the corner shadows stepped Vince, the head of technical surveillance, a man who lived behind bank of monitors in the basement bunker. "Boss?"
"Pull the corridor feeds for the north wing. Specifically the hallway outside the nursery, from five o'clock to eight o'clock tonight."
Vince tapped a key on his encrypted tablet. Within seconds, a holographic projection flickered above the mahogany desk, casting a blue glow over the room. The grainy black-and-white footage replayed in fast motion before slowing down at 6:15 PM.
The screen showed the nursery door opening a crack. A slender hand wearing a diamond tennis bracelet reached inside, placing a heavy object—wrapped in a silk handkerchief—onto the floor just inside the threshold, right where Mr. Buttons had been resting on the laundry basket.
The camera angle shifted, tracking the owner of the hand as she walked back toward the drawing-room.
It was Isabella Vance.
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The room went dead silent. Marcus stared at the screen, his jaw working silently as color completely drained from his face. "That... that’s impossible. Isabella was with me in the parlor."
"She left for ten minutes to 'check on the floral arrangements,'" Dominic said coldly, his eyes narrowing into slits. He turned his gaze back to the terrified little girl still clutching the ruined bear. Grace Carter had taught her daughter well—observation, quietness, and an unshakeable sense of right and wrong.
