Chapter 2 - THE WOMAN WHO KNEW ABOUT CLAIREBy morning, Gabriel had watched the footage seventeen times.
Every frame.
Every movement.
Every pause.
Nothing.
Hannah was careful.
Too careful.
At 7:10 A.M., she brought breakfast into Eli’s room.
Eli was sitting in bed.
He looked different.
Still pale.
Still fragile.
But awake.
Gabriel stood outside the doorway.
“Good morning.”
Eli looked at him.
For eleven months, his father had received nothing more than silence.
Now Eli looked away.
Gabriel swallowed.
“Did you sleep well?”
“No.”
Gabriel froze.
It was only two words.
But it was the longest answer his son had given him in months.
Hannah stood behind the breakfast tray.
Her eyes met Gabriel’s.
“You should eat too.”
“I’m not hungry.”
“You haven’t eaten since yesterday.”
Gabriel ignored her.
“Where did you get this?”
Hannah stared at him.
“The boat?”
Gabriel nodded.
“You told me it disappeared.”
“It did.”
“Then how did you know where it was?”
Hannah remained silent.
Gabriel stepped closer.
“Who are you?”
“A housekeeper.”
“No.”
Her expression changed.
“A housekeeper doesn't know about a toy my wife hid in a locked attic eleven months ago.”
Hannah slowly set down the tray.
“Your wife didn't hide it.”
Gabriel’s blood ran cold.
“Claire put it under the floorboard.”
He stared.
“How would you know that?”
Hannah looked toward Eli.
“Ask your son.”
Gabriel turned.
“Eli?”
The boy stared at the sailboat.
Then he whispered:
“Mom showed me.”
“When?”
“The night before she died.”
Gabriel's chest tightened.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
Eli looked at him.
“Because you never asked.”
That sentence cut deeper than any accusation.
Gabriel stepped back.
Then his phone rang.
His head of security.
“Mr. Marlowe, we have a problem.”
“What?”
“One of the cameras was disabled at 2:24 A.M.”
Gabriel frowned.
“Which one?”
“Camera 27.”
The basement archive.
Gabriel's face hardened.
“Who accessed it?”
“No one.”
“Then how did it go offline?”
Silence.
“We found something else.”
“What?”
“Someone deleted nine minutes of footage.”
Gabriel turned to Hannah.
She looked completely calm.
“Someone was here last night.”
Gabriel went to the security room.
The missing footage covered exactly 2:24 to 2:33 A.M.
Nine minutes.
He pulled the backup logs.
There was one access attempt.
The system identified the user as:
ADMINISTRATOR.
His own account.
Gabriel stared.
“I didn’t do this.”
His security chief said nothing.
Gabriel looked at the access timestamp.
2:24 A.M.
While he had been running downstairs.
Someone had used his credentials.
Someone who knew his password.
Someone who had access to his private security system.
Then a new notification appeared.
A hidden file.
No title.
No sender.
Gabriel opened it.
Video loaded.
Claire appeared on screen.
Alive.
Sitting in the same mansion.
The footage was dated ten days before her death.
Gabriel almost dropped the tablet.
Claire looked directly into the camera.
“If Gabriel is watching this…”
She took a breath.
“…then something has happened to me.”
Gabriel stared at the screen.
Claire continued.
“There are people inside this house who want Eli.”
Gabriel’s hand trembled.
“I don't mean his money.”
Claire looked frightened.
“I mean Eli himself.”
Then the video suddenly ended.
Gabriel stared at the black screen.
Behind him, someone spoke.
“Now you understand why I came here.”
Gabriel turned.
Hannah stood in the doorway.
“You knew about this?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
Hannah hesitated.
Then she said:
“Because Claire gave me the recording.”
Gabriel’s entire body went cold.
“She was my sister.”
Gabriel stared at her.
Claire had never told him she had a sister.
Not once.
Not in eleven years of marriage.
Not in a single photograph.
Not in a single letter.
Hannah looked at Eli.
“And your wife spent her last year preparing for the day she wouldn't be here to protect him.”
Gabriel's voice dropped.
“What was Claire protecting Eli from?”
Hannah looked at him.
“The truth.”
Then every light in the mansion went out.
The cameras died.
The security system shut down.
And from upstairs came a child's scream.
“DAD!”
Gabriel ran.
But when he reached Eli’s room…
The window was open.
May you like
The wheelchair was empty.
And Eli was gone.
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