Chapter 3 - The Name Someone Tried to Erase
Ethan ordered the estate's private physician to examine Lily again, but I refused to let anyone take her into another room without me.
“She stays with me,” I insisted.
Ethan nodded immediately.
“Together, then.”
That single word nearly broke me.
For years, I had carried Lily through crowded buses, waited in clinic hallways, and worked double shifts while she slept in a borrowed stroller. I had learned to distrust promises because promises didn't pay rent or protect a child from the people who wanted to hurt her.
Now Ethan stood beside me, watching a physician review Lily's records.
“The bracelet is unusual,” the doctor explained. “It may have been altered, but I can't determine why. We should verify her records directly with the original clinic.”
Ethan's jaw tightened.
“Do that.”
“And nobody changes her treatment or collects her medical information without Rosa's consent,” he added.
I looked at him in surprise.
He met my gaze.
“She's her mother. She decides.”
For the first time since our reunion, I wondered whether the boy I'd loved was still somewhere inside the man standing beside me.
Then Ethan's security chief, Malik, entered the room.
“Boss, we found something in the staff entrance footage.”
He handed Ethan a tablet.
The video showed Victoria entering the mansion at 1:12 a.m. three nights earlier. She was carrying a small black case.
She went directly to the security office.
Ten minutes later, she left without it.
“What's in the case?” I asked.
Malik hesitated.
“We don't know. The security logs were erased.”
Ethan's expression turned lethal.
“Restore them.”
“I've already started.”
A sudden noise came from the hallway. Lily had dropped her stuffed rabbit, and a young housekeeper hurried to pick it up.
As she handed it back, she whispered something to me.
“I'm sorry about what happened. Miss Haynes told us never to let the little girl near the east wing.”
I frowned.
“Why?”
The housekeeper glanced toward Ethan.
“Because there's a room up there nobody is allowed to enter.”
Ethan went completely still.
“What room?”
She looked frightened.
“Your father's old study.”
I remembered the photograph.
Thomas Caldwell's body beside the shattered office window.
“Why would Victoria care about his study?” I asked.
Ethan didn't answer.
Instead, he took Lily's hand and walked us upstairs.
The east wing smelled of dust and old wood. At the end of the corridor stood a dark oak door with a new electronic lock.
Ethan entered a code.
Access denied.
He tried another.
Access denied.
Malik examined the panel.
“Someone replaced the system last month.”
Ethan's eyes narrowed.
“My father died four years ago. Nobody has used this room since.”
I looked at the door.
“Then how did Victoria get inside?”
Malik's phone suddenly vibrated.
He read the message, and his face drained of color.
“Boss, I restored part of the deleted security log.”
“Show me.”
The screen displayed a timestamp, a security credential, and a name.
The person who had entered Thomas Caldwell's study three nights earlier wasn't Victoria.
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It was someone who had worked for Ethan for nearly a decade.
Malik himself.
