CHAPTER 6: THE PHOTOGRAPH
CHAPTER 6: THE PHOTOGRAPH
Leo reached Victoria's bedroom in less than a minute.
Two guards stood outside the open door. The room had already been searched from floor to ceiling. Every drawer had been emptied onto the bed.
The captain of security waited beside the fireplace.
Without a word, he handed Leo the photograph.
It was crystal clear.
Lily stood in the mansion's rose garden, smiling as she held a stuffed rabbit.
Behind her, only a few feet away, stood a tall man wearing a gray coat and a baseball cap.
Most people would have walked past the picture without noticing him.
Leo didn't.
The man's face was turned slightly toward the camera.
Enough to identify him.
Dr. Adrian Keller.
The date printed in the corner read:
Yesterday. 4:18 PM.
Leo looked up.
"Who took this?"
"We don't know," the captain answered.
"It was the only thing inside the safe."
Mateo examined the photograph more closely.
"Look at the background."
Leo followed his finger.
One of the upstairs windows was open.
His office window.
Someone had taken the picture from inside the mansion.
That meant Keller hadn't sneaked in alone.
Someone inside Rossi Manor had helped him.
"Seal the estate," Leo ordered.
"No one leaves."
An hour later, every employee was gathered in the grand ballroom.
Chefs.
Housekeepers.
Drivers.
Gardeners.
Security guards.
Even the temporary electricians working on the east wing.
Forty-three people stood in complete silence.
Leo walked slowly across the room.
No one dared to look away.
"For six years," he said calmly, "someone has betrayed this family."
His voice remained steady.
"I don't know who."
"But I will."
He stopped in the center of the ballroom.
"If anyone speaks now..."
"...I will protect them."
Silence.
No one moved.
No one spoke.
Then, from the back of the room, an elderly housekeeper slowly raised her hand.
Her name was Maria.
She had worked for the Rossi family for almost twenty years.
"I saw him," she whispered.
Every head turned.
Leo stepped closer.
"When?"
"Yesterday afternoon."
"Where?"
"In the chapel."
"There was a man talking to Miss Victoria."
"Were you sure it wasn't a guest?"
Maria shook her head.
"He wore a maintenance uniform."
"I thought he was repairing the lights."
"What happened next?"
Maria hesitated.
"When he left..."
"...Miss Victoria was crying."
That caught everyone's attention.
Victoria crying?
Leo had never seen it.
"Did you hear what they said?"
Maria closed her eyes, trying to remember.
"Only one sentence."
"What sentence?"
"The man told her..."
Maria swallowed.
"...'Once Leo learns the truth, he'll destroy himself.'"
The ballroom fell silent again.
That evening, Mateo entered Leo's office carrying another folder.
"We finished checking the security logs."
Leo looked up.
"And?"
"Yesterday afternoon..."
"...every camera facing the rose garden went offline."
"For how long?"
"Exactly seven minutes."
Leo leaned back.
"Long enough to meet Lily."
Mateo nodded.
"But one camera stayed online."
He placed a tablet on the desk.
"The stable camera."
The footage began to play.
The angle was poor.
Most of the garden couldn't be seen.
Only the edge of the path.
At 4:16 PM, Lily skipped into view, chasing a butterfly.
Two minutes later, a man entered the frame.
Gray coat.
Baseball cap.
Dr. Keller.
He crouched in front of Lily.
Instead of looking frightened...
She smiled.
She knew him.
Leo's heart sank.
Keller handed her something small.
Then he gently touched her hair.
A moment later, Victoria appeared.
She hurried toward them, looking nervous.
The three spoke for less than a minute.
Then Keller walked away.
The cameras came back online exactly as he disappeared.
Mateo paused the video.
"Lily wasn't afraid of him."
Leo stared at the frozen image.
"No."
"She trusted him."
Just then, a soft knock came from the office door.
It was the nurse caring for Lily.
"Mr. Rossi..."
"She's awake."
Leo immediately went upstairs.
Lily sat in bed hugging her stuffed rabbit.
She smiled when she saw him.
"Daddy."
He sat beside her.
"How are you feeling?"
"Better."
She looked at him carefully.
"Are you sad?"
Leo forced a smile.
"A little."
She reached under her blanket.
"I forgot."
She pulled out a folded piece of paper.
"The doctor told me to give you this..."
"...if you ever found the room."
Leo froze.
"What doctor?"
"The nice doctor."
His blood ran cold.
"Was his name Adrian?"
Lily nodded happily.
"Yes."
"He always brought me chocolate."
Leo slowly unfolded the paper.
It contained only one handwritten sentence.
The answers you're searching for are buried where Emily took her last breath.
At the bottom was an address.
An abandoned hospital nearly two hundred miles away.
Mateo looked over Leo's shoulder.
"It's a trap."
Leo folded the note and slipped it into his pocket.
"Probably."
"Then we shouldn't go."
Leo looked toward the sleeping child beside him.
"For six years..."
"...someone has been writing my family's story."
His eyes hardened.
May you like
"It's time I met the author."
End of Chapter 6
