Chapter 3 - The Locked Hallway.
Ethan's first instinct was to take Isabella out of the villa immediately.
His second was to remember that fear often made people destroy evidence.
Beatriz had already lied about Rosa, the missed phone calls, and the chore chart.
If he left without understanding what else existed inside the house, she would have hours to erase it.
So Ethan made a decision that felt unnatural for a father and familiar for a businessman.
He would stay calm long enough to learn everything.
He called Dr. Elena Marquez, the family's pediatrician, from the kitchen while Isabella sat beside him eating a second yogurt.
He kept the call simple.
"I need you to come to the house."
Elena heard something in his voice and did not ask unnecessary questions.
"Is Isabella safe right now?"
"She's with me."
"I'll be there in twenty minutes."
Ethan ended the call.
Beatriz appeared at the far end of the kitchen holding her phone.
"Who was that?"
"Elena."
Her face tightened.
"Why?"
"She's going to look at Isabella."
"For what?"
"You know what for."
Beatriz walked to the island and set her phone down faceup.
"I want us to stop treating this like some kind of emergency."
"You can want that."
"You're being hostile."
"I'm being careful."
"With your wife?"
"With my daughter."
The distinction landed between them.
Beatriz stared at him.
Then her expression softened into wounded disappointment.
Ethan recognized the shift.
He had seen executives use the same tactic when facts stopped helping them.
"Do you have any idea what it was like while you were gone?"
"Tell me."
"She became impossible."
Isabella stopped eating.
Ethan put a hand on her shoulder.
"How?"
Beatriz gestured toward the child.
"Tantrums, defiance, refusing schoolwork, lying about me to staff."
"Which staff?"
"Rosa, mainly."
"The same Rosa who mysteriously left without saying goodbye?"
"She quit."
"Where is her resignation?"
Beatriz blinked.
"What?"
"Rosa worked here nine years."
Ethan's voice remained conversational.
"She had a contract, severance terms, health coverage, and access credentials."
He leaned back slightly.
"Where is the resignation?"
Beatriz looked away first.
"The office handled it."
"Which office?"
"Human resources."
"At Cole Meridian?"
"Obviously."
Ethan took out his phone.
"Then it will take me thirty seconds to confirm."
Beatriz picked up her own phone immediately.
"You don't need to turn this into a corporate investigation."
"If you're telling the truth, it won't be one."
He called Javier Ruiz, his chief operating officer in Madrid.
Javier answered on the second ring.
"You're supposed to be over the Mediterranean right now."
"I landed early."
"Everything okay?"
"I need a personnel check."
Ethan watched Beatriz while he spoke.
"Rosa Alvarez, household staff assigned to Marbella residence."
There was keyboard noise on the line.
"She's active."
Ethan's eyes stayed on Beatriz.
"Active?"
"Yes."
"Any resignation?"
"No."
"Termination?"
"No."
"Leave request?"
A pause.
"No."
Javier's tone changed.
"Why?"
"Lock her employment record so no changes can be made without your approval."
"Done."
"And don't contact the house."
"Understood."
Ethan ended the call.
Beatriz's face had gone pale beneath her makeup.
"Maybe she left without paperwork."
"Then why did you say HR handled it?"
"Because I assumed they had."
"You just told me it was obvious."
"Ethan, stop."
He did not.
"Where is Rosa?"
"I don't know."
"When did you last see her?"
"Weeks ago."
"Which day?"
"I don't remember."
Isabella whispered, "Tuesday."
Both adults turned.
She stared down at the marble counter.
"What Tuesday?" Ethan asked gently.
"The Tuesday after you missed the school show."
Ethan remembered the date instantly.
He had watched a recording from Dubai because an investor dinner had run late.
"What happened that Tuesday?"
Isabella's hands curled together.
Beatriz stepped in.
"This is unnecessary."
Ethan held up one hand without looking at her.
"Let her answer."
Isabella took a breath.
"Rosa yelled."
Ethan had never heard Rosa raise her voice in nine years.
"At you?"
"No."
"At Beatriz?"
Isabella nodded.
"What did she say?"
"She said I wasn't a servant."
Beatriz closed her eyes briefly.
Ethan felt the room sharpen around him.
"Then what happened?"
"They went into the office."
"Whose office?"
"Beatriz's."
"And after that?"
"Rosa left."
"Did she take her things?"
"I don't know."
"Did she say goodbye?"
Isabella shook her head.
"Did you see her again?"
Another shake.
Beatriz slammed her palm against the island.
The sound made Isabella jump.
"This is insane."
Ethan stood immediately.
"Do that again and this conversation ends with you outside the gate."
Beatriz stared at him in shock.
"You're threatening to throw me out of my own home?"
"I'm telling you not to frighten Isabella."
"She was already frightened before you got here because she knew she was in trouble."
Ethan's eyes narrowed.
"For what?"
Beatriz opened her mouth.
Then she stopped.
It was the first question she seemed afraid to answer.
The front doorbell rang.
Dr. Elena Marquez arrived carrying a medical bag and wearing linen trousers and a white blouse.
She greeted Isabella first.
"Hey, Bella."
Isabella managed a faint smile.
"Hi."
Elena looked at Ethan.
"Can I examine her somewhere private?"
"Yes."
Beatriz stepped forward.
"I'll come."
Elena's tone remained pleasant.
"I'd prefer to speak with Isabella first."
"I'm her stepmother."
"And Ethan is her legal parent."
Elena looked at him.
"Is that okay with you?"
"Yes."
Beatriz's mouth tightened.
Elena took Isabella to the small guest sitting room off the library.
Ethan waited outside.
He hated every second of it.
Beatriz paced the hallway.
"You realize how this looks."
"I'm starting to."
"I mean you."
She folded her arms.
"You arrive without warning, see one chore, and suddenly everyone is against me."
"Rosa's employment file says she never left."
"Paperwork errors happen."
"Not in my house for a nine-year employee."
"Your house."
She repeated the words with bitterness.
"There it is."
Ethan looked at her.
"There what is?"
"The truth."
Her eyes filled convincingly.
"It's always your house, your company, your daughter, your rules."
Ethan had once loved the way Beatriz could turn a room toward her when she entered it.
Now he saw the same gift as a weapon.
"This isn't about ownership."
"Everything with you is about ownership."
"Then explain the camera in the laundry room."
Her tears vanished.
The change was immediate.
"Security."
"Pointed at Isabella's chore station?"
"We have cameras everywhere."
"No, we don't."
Ethan had approved the security plan himself.
Exterior entrances, main halls, garage, perimeter.
No cameras in private work areas.
"Who installed it?"
"I don't remember."
"When?"
"A while ago."
"Who has access?"
"The security app."
"Which account?"
She said nothing.
Elena opened the sitting room door.
Ethan stood.
The doctor's face was professionally neutral, but her eyes were not.
"I'd like to speak with you alone."
Beatriz immediately said, "I should be included."
Elena looked at her.
"No."
Ethan followed Elena into the library and closed the door.
"Tell me."
Elena lowered her voice.
"The marks are consistent with ordinary household accidents in isolation, but there are several at different stages of healing."
Ethan felt his hands go cold.
"Did she tell you how she got them?"
"She gave different explanations and then became afraid she'd said too much."
Elena paused.
"Her hands have friction blisters, and she's lost weight since I saw her in May."
"How much?"
"Enough that I want it documented and followed."
Ethan looked toward the closed door.
"What do I do?"
"Keep her with you."
"I will."
"And don't pressure her for a complete story tonight."
Elena's voice softened.
"Children who believe they will be punished for talking often reveal things in pieces."
Ethan nodded once.
"Can you write everything down?"
"I already am."
Elena left with Isabella after promising to call the next morning.
Ethan decided Isabella would sleep in the guest suite beside his room that night.
When he told her, she looked confused.
"Not my room?"
"You can sleep wherever you feel safest."
She hesitated.
"Can I sleep near you?"
"Yes."
They went upstairs together.
Halfway down the second-floor hallway, Isabella stopped.
A narrow corridor to the east wing was blocked by a locked interior door Ethan had never seen locked before.
He tried the handle.
Nothing.
"Why is this locked?"
Isabella immediately stepped backward.
"Dad, don't."
Ethan turned.
Her face had lost all color.
"What's down there?"
"Please."
"Bella, what is it?"
Her voice became almost inaudible.
"That's where she puts my things when I'm bad."
Ethan looked at the locked door again.
Then he noticed something wedged beneath it.
A corner of pink paper.
He crouched and pulled it free.
It was part of a child's drawing.
May you like
Across the torn edge, in Isabella's handwriting, were three words.
DAD COME HOME.
