Chapter 3 - The Broken Ledger
The private office was silent, save for the hum of the server racks hidden behind the bookshelf. I sat behind my heavy mahogany desk, the platinum ring sitting between my hands like a curse. I turned it over and over, staring at the unevenly carved star.
I opened my terminal and brought up the master security logs for November 2nd—nineteen days ago.
My estate was equipped with over sixty high-definition cameras, monitoring every corridor, entry point, and perimeter wall. The only places without cameras were the private bedrooms, including the staff quarters in the basement level, to respect their privacy. But the hallway leading to the staff wing was heavily monitored.
I scrubbed back the footage to 11:00 PM on the night of Sofia’s death.
The timecode ticked away on the monitor.
At 11:14 PM, the footage skipped.
I paused. I rewound it three minutes and played it again. At precisely 11:14:02, the screen flickered with static for exactly four minutes and twelve seconds before snapping back to clear video at 11:18:14.
Four minutes of lost footage. On a closed-circuit, military-grade system that had never failed in the five years I’d owned this estate.
Someone had bypassed the system. And in my organization, only three people had the administrator override codes: myself, Marco, and... Vivienne’s brother, Julian, whose tech security firm had installed the system two years ago as part of our corporate partnership.
My throat tightened. I leaned back in my leather chair, feeling the walls of my own house closing in around me.
A soft knock at the side door interrupted my thoughts. I pulled my desk drawer open, reached for the silver key to the secondary lock, and opened it. Marco slipped inside, carrying a thick manila folder.
“Boss,” Marco said, his voice low. “I did what you asked. While you were locked in here, I sent two of my trusted guys down to Sofia’s quarter. The room was officially cleared out by her sister two weeks ago, but we did a thorough sweep of the floorboards and the structural vents.”
“Did you find the wooden box?” I asked.
“No,” Marco said, opening the folder and laying several photographs on my desk. “The box is gone. But we found this under the floorboards near her bed.”
I looked at the photographs. They showed a small, blood-stained silver key and a heavily burned piece of paper. Most of the paper was charred beyond recognition, but near the bottom edge, a sequence of handwritten numbers and dates was still legible.
I recognized Sofia’s handwriting instantly. She was meticulous, double-checking every expense sheet she ever submitted to my office. But these numbers weren’t household expenses. They were massive transfers—sums ranging from $200,000 to over $1.5 million, routed through offshore accounts in Grand Cayman.
And right next to the final entry was a set of initials: V. M.
Vivienne Montgomery.
“She wasn’t just a housekeeper,” I whispered, reading the dates. The transfers had started eight months ago—around the exact time Vivienne and I announced our engagement.
“It gets worse, Mr. Vance,” Marco said grimly. “I called the coroner who performed Sofia’s autopsy. The official report said hemorrhagic stroke. But I paid him a personal visit twenty minutes ago via a secure line. He admitted that he was paid fifty thousand dollars by an anonymous party to expedite the cremation and skip the toxicology screening.”
I closed my eyes, a wave of cold, sharp anger washing over me. Sofia hadn’t died of natural causes. She had been murdered in my home, right under my roof, while I was sleeping upstairs dreaming of my future with a monster.
“Where is Julian?” I asked.
“He’s in the drawing room with the other guests,” Marco replied. “He’s been trying to use a satellite device to bypass our cell jammers, but my men confiscated it five minutes ago.”
“Bring him here,” I commanded. “Quietly. Don’t alert Vivienne.”
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“And what about Miss Montgomery?”
I picked up the platinum ring and slipped it into my pocket. “Leave her in the hall for now. Let her sweat. Fear makes people careless, Marco. And I want to see how far she’s willing to go when she realizes her time has run out.”
