Chapter 3 - The Trap Closes
"I told you, Marcus," Lorraine said, taking a step forward on the polished concrete floor, her designer heels clicking loudly in the quiet space. "You’re far too emotional to make sound decisions. Look at you—dragging your vulnerable, malnourished daughters out into a rainstorm in the middle of the night, accompanied by an trespassing, unwashed child."
I shifted Isabella and Mia behind my back, putting my body between the children and the guards. Lily shrank into my shadow, clutching my coat tail.
"Daniel," I said, glaring at my security chief, whom I had paid half a million dollars a year to protect my family. "What is the meaning of this? Step aside."
Daniel didn't look me in the eye. He looked down at the concrete floor, his jaw tight. "I’m sorry, Marcus. Lorraine showed me the court-approved medical filings from Dr. Vance. You’re legally considered an active threat to yourself and the children until a psychiatric evaluation is completed."
"Dr. Vance is on her payroll!" I shouted, my voice echoing off the high steel beams of the garage. "She’s starving my daughters, Daniel! Look at them! Look at how thin Isabella is!"
Lorraine sighed dramatically, shaking her head as if dealing with a stubborn toddler. "Classic projection of a psychotic break. He denies his own neglect by accusing the caretaker. Daniel, please secure the children and take them back to the nursery. Dr. Vance is already en route with an emergency medical transport team to take Marcus to the private facility in Memphis."
The two uniformed guards took a step forward, raising their tasers.
"Don't touch them!" I roared, grabbing a heavy steel torque wrench from a nearby tool rack and holding it high. "If anyone lays a finger on these girls, I swear to God you won't walk out of this garage!"
"Daddy, I'm scared!" Mia wailed, burying her face in my leg.
"Marcus, drop the tool," Daniel said, finally raising his eyes. "Don't make this worse than it has to be."
"You built the hidden cameras, Daniel!" I screamed, my breath coming in ragged gasps. "You saw the footage! Did you look at Camera Seven? Did you see Lorraine walk away with the dinner trays without letting them touch a single bite? Did you see her look into the lens and mock me?"
Daniel paused. A flicker of hesitation crossed his weathered face. "What are you talking about?"
"She knew about the cameras!" I yelled. "She walked up to Camera Nine in the east wing, looked directly into the lens, and smiled! Ask her! Ask her why she knew where the hidden lenses were installed before you even finished wiring the main server!"
Daniel slowly turned his head to look at Lorraine. "Lorraine... I personally ran those feeds to a private, encrypted cloud server that only Marcus and I had access to. How would you know where Camera Nine was located?"
Lorraine’s calm smile flickered for a fraction of a second, replaced by a cold, sharp annoyance. "Don't be ridiculous, Daniel. He’s rambling. He’s trying to sow discord among us. Secure the children now. I pay your salary."
"No," Daniel said quietly, taking a step back from the guards. "The estate pays my salary. Marcus pays my salary."
Daniel reached into his tactical vest, pulled out his master security tablet, and tapped the screen rapidly. He scrubbed back the playback footage from Camera Nine from two hours prior.
His face drained of all color as he watched Lorraine stop beneath the hidden lens, look up, and smile into the darkness.
"You knew," Daniel whispered, looking at Lorraine as if seeing a monster for the first time. "You had a keylogger on my master console."
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"Of course I did, you simpleton," Lorraine snapped, dropping all pretense of gentleness. Her voice turned vicious, sharp as broken glass. "Do you think I spent twenty years building this family’s legacy just to let a ruined, grieving widower and a mercenary security guard ruin my life’s work?"
She reached into her cashmere coat pocket and pulled out a sleek, compact silver handgun.
