Chapter 4 - THE CAMERA WITH NO MEMORYBy midnight, Mercer House had become a crime scene.
The champagne had been abandoned.
The quartet had packed away their instruments.
The white roses were scattered across the marble floor where guests had pushed past one another during the panic.
Julian sat beside Evie's bed.
She was asleep at last.
Her breathing was soft.
Every few minutes, however, her fingers tightened around the sleeve of his shirt.
Julian refused to move.
His phone vibrated.
Marcus.
Julian stepped into the hallway.
“Tell me.”
“We checked the security server.”
“And?”
“The camera wasn't simply turned off.”
Julian's expression hardened.
“It was wiped.”
“Can you recover it?”
“Possibly. But someone knew the system well enough to delete the backup.”
“Who has that access?”
Marcus hesitated.
“Three people.”
“Names.”
“Me. Your chief technology officer. And Vivienne.”
Julian closed his eyes.
Vivienne.
The answer seemed obvious.
Too obvious.
He remembered her expression on the balcony.
She had looked furious.
But beneath the anger, there had been something else.
Fear.
Real fear.
His phone vibrated again.
This time it was an unknown number.
One message.
YOU SAVED HER TONIGHT. YOU WON'T ALWAYS BE THERE.
Julian's stomach tightened.
He called Marcus back.
“Trace this.”
“We're trying.”
“Don't try. Do it.”
He returned to Evie's room.
She was awake.
“Daddy?”
Julian immediately sat beside her.
“I'm here.”
“Are you mad?”
“At you?”
She shook her head.
“At Vivienne.”
Julian took a breath.
“I won't let anyone hurt you.”
Evie stared at him.
“She was crying.”
Julian's expression changed.
“She was?”
Evie nodded.
“She said Mommy wasn't coming back.”
Julian froze.
“Who said that?”
“Vivienne.”
“Did she say anything else?”
Evie thought.
“She said… 'Your daddy doesn't love me anymore.'”
Julian looked away.
He suddenly remembered the months before tonight.
Vivienne's increasing jealousy.
Her obsession with Evie.
The arguments.
The strange disappearances.
He had dismissed all of them as emotional instability.
Now he wondered whether he had missed something much more dangerous.
At 2:13 a.m., Marcus entered the room.
“We found something.”
Julian followed him downstairs.
On a secondary server, technicians had recovered thirty-seven seconds of deleted footage.
Julian watched.
The video showed the mezzanine.
Vivienne entered with Evie.
Then, three minutes later, another person appeared.
A man.
He wore a black suit.
His face was hidden by the angle.
He walked directly toward the security panel.
Disabled the camera.
Then left.
Julian leaned closer.
“Who is that?”
Marcus zoomed in.
A silver watch became visible.
Julian's face changed.
He knew that watch.
It belonged to someone who had been standing in the ballroom tonight.
Someone he trusted.
His own brother.
Adrian Mercer.
Julian stared at the screen.
“No.”
Marcus said nothing.
Julian shook his head.
“My brother wouldn't do this.”
Marcus looked at him.
“Then we need to find out why he was there.”
The next morning, Adrian called.
His voice was calm.
Almost too calm.
“Julian, we need to talk.”
Julian looked through the glass doors toward the garden.
“About Evie?”
A pause.
“Yes.”
Julian's fingers tightened around the phone.
“Then come over.”
Adrian exhaled.
“I think you should know something before I do.”
“What?”
“I wasn't the only person who knew that camera would be disabled.”
Julian's blood ran cold.
“Who else?”
Adrian whispered:
“Your father.”
May you like
Julian went completely still.
His father had been dead for six years.
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