Chapter 3 - The Voice Behind the Black Screen
Richard followed Ellis back to security.
The ballroom could survive without him for ten minutes.
His daughter might not have survived his blindness much longer.
Ellis loaded the archived audio.
The waveform appeared beneath a black video screen.
7:39 p.m.
A soft click.
Then Victoria's voice.
Calm. Almost bored.
"Stop pulling at the sash."
Maya whimpered.
"No."
A pause.
"What did I tell you about that word?"
Maya's breathing quickened.
There was a rustle of fabric.
Then Victoria again, lower this time.
"You will stand where I put you."
Maya began to cry.
Richard gripped the desk.
The sound was muffled suddenly, as though a door had shut between the microphone and the child.
Then three small knocks.
Pause.
Three more.
A tiny voice from far away.
"Daddy."
Richard's knees almost failed.
Ellis stopped the recording.
"There's seven more minutes."
"Play it."
"Sir—"
"Play it."
The audio resumed.
Victoria paced near the microphone. Her heels made a slow, even rhythm.
"You want Daddy?" she said.
Maya cried behind the door.
"Daddy is downstairs. Daddy always has somewhere else to be."
Richard closed his eyes.
"If you scream when I open this, you go back inside. Understand?"
Maya sobbed.
"Understand?"
"Yes."
A click.
The crying grew louder.
Victoria's voice softened instantly.
"There. That's better. Pretty girls don't make ugly noises."
Then came a sound Richard could not identify.
A tap.
Another.
Not loud.
Wood against something soft.
Maya whimpered.
"Hands down," Victoria said.
Tap.
"Hands down."
Richard reached for the keyboard and stopped the audio himself.
The security room felt too small.
"What was that?"
Ellis said nothing.
Richard looked at his own hands.
He had spent twenty years solving shortages, theft, sabotage, strikes, storms, bankruptcies, and port closures.
He had systems for everything.
But inside his own house, his daughter had been learning not to cry.
"Get me the raw files for all fourteen incidents," he said.
"Already copying."
"And do not alert the household security director."
Ellis frowned. "Mr. Kessler?"
"Especially not Kessler."
Richard had suddenly remembered something.
Three months earlier, Victoria had recommended replacing the old security chief. The new man, Conrad Kessler, had worked for her father's real estate firm.
At the time, Richard had called it efficient.
Now the word tasted rotten.
He returned to the ballroom.
Victoria was standing beneath the central chandelier laughing with her father, Malcolm Vance.
Malcolm was silver-haired and immaculately tailored, one hand resting on a cane he did not truly need. Manhattan papers called him old money despite the fact that most of his money had been made in zoning fights and distressed property acquisitions.
He saw Richard and lifted his glass.
"There he is. The invisible host."
Richard smiled.
"Security issue."
Victoria's gaze flickered.
"Nothing serious, I hope."
"Probably a software glitch."
She relaxed.
Malcolm slapped Richard's shoulder.
"You build an empire on machines, eventually the machines demand attention."
Richard looked at Victoria.
"Apparently."
Dinner continued.
Richard watched instead of speaking.
He watched Victoria charm donors.
He watched Kessler enter twice through the service corridor and exchange brief glances with Malcolm.
He watched his wife touch the diamond at her throat whenever she was anxious.
She touched it six times in twenty minutes.
At 10:14 p.m., Richard stepped outside onto the east terrace and called his attorney.
Laura Bennett answered on the second ring.
"If this is about the foundation speech, I warned you never to improvise jokes."
"I need you at my house tonight. Quietly."
Her tone changed.
"What happened?"
"I found evidence someone has been hurting Maya."
Silence.
"Who?"
"I think Victoria."
Another silence, shorter.
"Do not confront her alone. Preserve everything. Do not let anyone wipe the system. And Richard—"
"What?"
"If you have evidence of abuse, this stops being a marriage problem."
"I know."
"Do you? Because rich families are very good at confusing privacy with immunity."
Richard looked through the terrace doors.
Victoria was smiling at him from across the ballroom.
He smiled back.
"Come through the service gate. Ellis will meet you."
When he ended the call, someone spoke behind him.
"You look like a man who just discovered a leak in his ship."
Malcolm Vance stood in the doorway.
Richard slipped his phone into his pocket.
"Just work."
Malcolm stepped onto the terrace.
"You work too much. That's why women like my daughter are useful. We keep the house running while men like you build things."
Richard said nothing.
Malcolm leaned on his cane.
"Victoria loves that child, you know."
The statement was too specific.
Richard turned.
"I didn't say anything about Maya."
For the first time all evening, Malcolm's face lost its polish.
Only for a second.
Then he smiled.
"You didn't have to. She's the only thing in this house you worry about more than money."
He walked away.
Richard remained on the terrace until the cold reached his bones.
When he returned inside, Ellis was waiting near the pantry.
"Mrs. Sterling just went upstairs," the guard whispered.
"To Maya?"
"No. Your study."
May you like
Richard's study contained one thing Victoria had never been given permission to touch.
Eleanor's private safe.
