Chapter 4 - NO CAMERAS TONIGHT
By noon, Julian's story was everywhere.
He had spent years building relationships with business reporters who repeated his version before anyone checked it.
The headlines were careful.
The insinuations were not.
VALE CEO FACES FAMILY TURMOIL AMID BOARD DISPUTE.
SECRET HEIRESS EMERGES IN CORPORATE POWER STRUGGLE.
QUESTIONS SURROUND ELENA VALE'S MENTAL HEALTH AFTER MIDNIGHT INCIDENT.
The photograph accompanying the last article had been taken four years earlier.
I was leaving a hospital after my mother-in-law's surgery.
My eyes were red because I had been awake for twenty hours.
The caption called me "visibly distressed."
Julian had found a way to turn exhaustion from four years ago into proof that I was unstable today.
I should have expected it.
He had always been better at controlling the first story than the truth.
My father wanted to issue a public statement naming him as my husband and condemning the assault.
I stopped him.
"Not yet."
"He is destroying your reputation."
"He is trying to make me react."
"You have every right to react."
"I know."
I looked at the article again.
"That is why I will choose when."
Samuel entered the room carrying two phones in evidence bags.
"We have a problem."
"Only one?"
He ignored my attempt at humor.
"Julian surrendered his corporate devices to the audit team."
My father frowned.
"That sounds like progress."
"They were wiped."
"Completely?"
"Factory reset less than an hour before the preservation order reached him."
I felt my pulse quicken.
"What about Selene's phone?"
"She claims she lost it."
"Of course she does."
"She says she left it in a rideshare vehicle."
My father gave Samuel a look.
"And you believe that?"
"I believe she no longer has the phone she was using last night."
That was not the same thing.
I thought again about Selene filming me.
"Cloud backups?"
"We are seeking legal access."
"Too slow."
Samuel sighed.
"The law is often slower than people in your family prefer."
My father ignored the remark.
"What about the house system?"
Samuel opened his laptop.
"Julian was correct about one thing."
My stomach tightened.
"The interior security cameras were disabled at 7:14 p.m."
"By Julian?"
"By an administrator account assigned to him."
"So there really is no video."
"I did not say that."
Samuel turned the screen toward me.
A diagram of the property appeared.
"The main camera system was off."
He pointed to the garden, driveway, and service entrance.
"But Vale Meridian pays for the security service because Julian frequently works from home."
"Meaning?"
"Meaning the security company mirrors system logs for insurance compliance."
My father leaned closer.
Samuel opened a log file.
"At 7:14, the cameras went dark."
Then he highlighted a second line.
"At 7:15, a request was sent to purge the local archive."
"By Julian?"
"Same administrator account."
"That proves he wanted the cameras off."
"Yes, but it gets better."
Samuel tapped another line.
"The purge failed."
I stared at him.
"Why?"
"Because someone had changed the permissions two days earlier."
My father looked at me.
I shook my head.
"It was not me."
Samuel nodded.
"We asked the security vendor who made the change."
He turned the laptop again.
The user name appeared on the screen.
N.CROSS.ADMIN.
My father went silent.
"Nathan," I said.
"It appears so."
"Why would Nathan prevent Julian from deleting footage?"
Samuel closed the laptop halfway.
"That is exactly what we need to understand."
My father paced to the window.
"He may have wanted leverage."
"Over Julian?"
"Over everyone."
The security company had no actual interior footage because the cameras never recorded after 7:14.
But the failed purge left metadata proving deliberate shutdown.
There was also something else.
The home's smart audio system had remained active.
Not microphones intended for surveillance.
Voice-control devices.
Most commands were discarded instantly.
A few short clips were temporarily buffered whenever the activation phrase was mistakenly detected.
Samuel had recovered eleven fragments.
The first was useless.
The second contained Selene laughing.
The third captured Julian saying, "No staff."
The fourth was the sound of something striking the floor.
I stopped the playback.
My hands were shaking.
My father reached for the laptop.
"That is enough."
"No."
"Elena."
"Play the rest."
Samuel hesitated.
Then he continued.
Fragments came and went.
Julian's voice.
Selene counting.
My own breathing.
A command that triggered the device by accident.
Then, near the end, a clear sentence.
"Maybe now you'll remember your place, Elena."
My father turned away.
Samuel stopped the file.
No one spoke for several seconds.
"Can we use that?"
I asked.
"Possibly."
"Possibly?"
"We need to authenticate the clips and establish the collection process."
"Do it."
My phone rang.
Unknown caller.
Not the same number that had been sending messages.
I answered.
"Hello?"
For a moment, there was only breathing.
Then a woman's voice whispered.
"He is going to kill me."
I recognized her immediately.
"Selene?"
My father turned.
Samuel reached for a recorder.
"Do not say my name," she whispered.
"Where are you?"
"I made a mistake."
"You made several."
She began crying.
It sounded real.
That did not make me trust her.
"Julian knows I filmed it."
Samuel's eyes locked on mine.
I put the call on speaker.
"Do you still have the video?"
"Not on my phone."
"Where is it?"
"I sent it to myself."
"Where?"
"A private account."
I closed my eyes briefly.
There it was.
The thing Julian had been certain did not exist.
A witness.
A recording.
Proof.
"Send it to me."
Selene laughed weakly.
"You really think I am giving away the only thing keeping me alive?"
"What do you want?"
The crying stopped.
Her voice changed.
"Five million dollars."
My father mouthed one word.
No.
I did not need his advice.
"You helped him hurt me, and now you want me to pay you?"
"I can destroy him."
"Then destroy him."
"I can destroy you too."
The line went quiet.
Samuel moved closer to the phone.
"Ms. Laurent, this call is being preserved."
Selene cursed.
"You brought lawyers into it?"
"You called me."
I heard a sound on her end.
A door.
Then footsteps.
Selene's breathing changed.
"No."
"What is it?"
"He found me."
"Who?"
"Julian."
The call ended.
I called back immediately.
No answer.
Again.
Nothing.
Samuel contacted the police.
My father contacted his security team.
For the next twenty minutes, everyone moved at once.
Then Samuel's phone rang.
He listened without speaking.
When he ended the call, his expression was grim.
"Police reached Selene's apartment."
"Is she there?"
"No."
"Julian?"
"No."
"Then where is she?"
Samuel looked at me.
"The apartment is empty."
He paused.
"But they found her old phone smashed in the sink."
My father asked the question I could not.
"Any sign of violence?"
"Not exactly."
"What does that mean?"
Samuel's jaw tightened.
"There was a note on the kitchen counter."
"What did it say?"
May you like
He read it from his screen.
"ELENA MADE ME LIE."
