Chapter 4 - THE MISSING MAID LEFT A MESSAGEElena had not slept.
She sat beside Noah's bed, holding his hand while the mansion's doctor checked his blood pressure for the third time.
The boy insisted he was fine, but every time someone walked past the door, his shoulders tightened.
Elena recognized that reaction.
It was the same fear she had been carrying for weeks.
"You're staying here tonight," she told him.
Noah frowned.
"What about your job?"
"I'll worry about that tomorrow."
"Are you going to lose it because of me?"
She kissed his forehead.
"Never."
When she finally left the room, Dominic was waiting in the corridor.
"He's sleeping?"
"Trying to."
"I've arranged another security detail."
Elena looked at him.
"Can I trust them?"
"Not all of them."
His honesty surprised her.
Dominic continued.
"I've dismissed everyone who had direct access to Victor's security systems. The remaining guards are being checked by an independent investigator."
"What if one of them is involved too?"
"Then we'll find out."
They walked toward the kitchen, where Dominic had arranged coffee and food.
Elena stared at the untouched plate.
"Maria used to sit there," she said, pointing toward a small table.
"Who?"
"Maria Santos. She was the laundry supervisor. She worked here for almost four years."
"What exactly did she discover?"
Elena lowered her voice.
"She found invoices for cameras and electronic equipment that never arrived. The amounts were enormous. She also found payments to employees who didn't exist."
"Why didn't she report it?"
"She tried. Victor told everyone she was stealing jewelry."
Dominic's expression hardened.
"And then?"
"She was escorted out. She begged to collect her handbag, but Victor wouldn't allow it."
"Did you speak to her afterward?"
"Once. She called me from a public phone. She said she had proof that someone was using the mansion's staff accounts to move money."
"Where is she now?"
"I don't know."
Elena hesitated.
"But she left me something."
Dominic leaned forward.
"What?"
"A key."
She removed a small brass key from the lining of her handbag.
"She said that if anything happened to her, I should give it to someone who could protect the truth."
Dominic examined it.
There was a tiny number engraved on the metal.
214.
Michael arrived twenty minutes later.
He recognized the key immediately.
"That's probably a storage locker."
Dominic instructed him to trace the number.
By noon, they had identified a storage facility in Queens. The locker had been rented under Maria's name, but the payment records showed that someone had continued paying for it after she disappeared.
Dominic insisted that Elena accompany him only if she wanted to.
She agreed.
The facility manager opened locker 214.
Inside were several cardboard boxes, an old laptop, and a brown leather handbag.
Elena recognized it instantly.
"That's Maria's."
She opened the bag.
Inside was a small notebook filled with handwritten dates, account numbers, and employee names.
There was also a photograph.
Maria stood beside a younger version of Anthony Moretti.
On the back, someone had written:
THE NIGHT ISABELLA CAME HOME.
Dominic stared at the words.
"Isabella?"
Elena turned the photograph over again.
"Your mother?"
Before he could answer, Michael discovered a small flash drive taped beneath the laptop.
He connected it to a secure computer.
A video appeared.
Maria sat in front of the camera, visibly exhausted.
"If anyone is watching this, I haven't been able to return home."
She glanced nervously over her shoulder.
"Anthony Moretti and Victor Hail are working with Raymond Cross. But there's something worse. Dominic needs to know what happened to his mother."
She leaned closer.
"Isabella didn't die in that hospital."
Dominic felt the room tilt.
Maria continued.
"She was taken away because she discovered who ordered her husband's murder."
A noise sounded behind her.
Maria looked toward the door.
Then the video ended.
For several seconds, nobody spoke.
Dominic slowly turned toward Michael.
"Find Maria."
Michael nodded.
But Elena was staring at the screen.
There was something she recognized in the background.
A painting.
She had cleaned that exact painting every morning for eleven months.
It hung in the private wing of the mansion.
The video hadn't been recorded in a storage facility or a stranger's house.
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Maria had filmed it inside Dominic's home.
And the timestamp showed it had been recorded only two days earlier.
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