Chapter 4 - The Videos
They went downstairs because Noah refused to remain near the closet.
Daniel sat on the edge of the cream sofa. Rosa stayed beside Noah on the rug, letting him press against her knee while he pushed his toy truck back and forth in silence.
Vanessa stood by the windows with her arms folded.
“Play it,” Daniel said.
Rosa did.
The first video was shaky. It showed the kitchen at night.
Vanessa’s voice came from off camera.
“Stop crying or I will put you back upstairs.”
Noah’s small voice: “Daddy.”
“He’s not here.”
“Rosa.”
“She works for me.”
Daniel paused the video.
His jaw tightened.
The second showed Noah sitting alone at the breakfast table while Vanessa removed his plate because he refused to finish eggs.
The third showed her dragging him by the wrist toward the stairs.
The fourth showed Rosa stepping between them.
“Don’t touch him like that.”
Vanessa turned toward the camera.
“You want to keep your job? Mind your business.”
By the sixth video, Daniel could barely breathe.
By the ninth, he stopped asking questions.
Then Rosa opened the last file.
The picture showed a hotel hallway.
Daniel recognized it immediately.
“The Harbor Crest?”
Rosa nodded.
He and Vanessa had attended a charity gala there two weeks earlier. Vanessa had insisted Noah come because donors liked “family pictures.” Daniel left early for an emergency conference call.
The video began with Rosa running down a hall.
A child was crying behind a locked hotel room door.
Rosa pounded on it.
“Noah?”
From inside came his terrified voice.
“Rosa! Rosa!”
A man appeared at the far end of the hallway.
Daniel leaned closer.
He knew him.
Evan Pierce.
Vanessa’s personal assistant.
In the video, Evan rushed toward Rosa.
“You need to leave.”
“Where is Mrs. Hale?”
“She’s downstairs.”
“With who?”
Evan looked directly at the camera.
Then Vanessa stepped out of another room behind him.
Not alone.
Daniel’s blood went cold.
The man beside her was his business partner, Marcus Reed.
Vanessa saw Rosa holding the phone.
Her face changed instantly.
“Delete that.”
The video ended.
No one spoke.
Daniel looked across the room at his wife.
“You locked my son in a hotel room so you could sleep with Marcus?”
May you like
Vanessa’s lips trembled.
Then she said, “That’s not the secret you should be worried about.”
