Chapter 3 - The Missing Hours.
Daniel slept for forty-three minutes that night.
He knew because his watch recorded it.
The rest of the time, he sat in the dark nursery beside Ethan’s crib and listened to his son breathe.
Lily slept on the small couch near the window after refusing Daniel’s offer to send her home.
“I am not leaving him tonight.”
Daniel had not argued.
At 2:13 a.m., Ethan stirred.
Lily woke instantly.
Daniel noticed that too.
She did not rush the crib.
She waited to see whether he would settle on his own.
When he began to cry, she stood and picked him up with practiced gentleness.
Daniel watched from the chair.
“You know every sound he makes.”
Lily looked embarrassed by the observation.
“I have spent a lot of time with him.”
“More than I have.”
She did not answer.
Daniel looked toward the dark window.
“That was not a compliment to me.”
Lily sat with Ethan against her chest.
“You work because you think you are protecting him.”
Daniel gave a humorless smile.
“And apparently I was protecting everything except him.”
Lily lowered her eyes.
“You did not know.”
“I should have.”
Silence settled between them.
Then Daniel asked the question that had been grinding through his mind since Marcus showed him the system log.
“Who knows my administrator password?”
Lily blinked.
“I do not.”
“I know you do not.”
He leaned forward.
“Have you ever seen Serena at my study computer?”
Lily thought carefully.
“Once.”
“When?”
“Maybe six weeks ago.”
“What was she doing?”
“She said she was printing menus.”
Daniel almost laughed.
His study computer had access to the entire estate network.
The menus could have been printed from twelve other devices.
“What else?”
Lily hesitated.
“There was someone with her.”
Daniel looked up.
“Who?”
“I only saw him from behind.”
“Staff?”
“No.”
“Family?”
“I do not think so.”
“What did he look like?”
“Tall.”
“Gray coat.”
“Dark hair.”
Daniel knew half the men in Chicago who fit that description.
“Did you hear anything?”
Lily closed her eyes, trying to remember.
“One sentence.”
Daniel waited.
“He said, ‘Once the records are clean, he will never know the difference.’”
Daniel felt every hair on his arms rise.
“Why did you not put that in the notebook?”
“I did.”
The missing notebook had just become much more important.
At six-thirty, Marcus knocked softly on the nursery door.
He had not gone home either.
Daniel followed him downstairs.
The mansion looked strange after a sleepless night.
The flowers from the canceled dinner had begun to droop.
Serena’s gold gown was gone from the foyer.
The broken calm of the previous evening had been replaced by legal silence.
Serena had moved into the east guest suite on her attorney’s advice.
Margaret had stayed in another room because she refused to leave Daniel alone while the family was in crisis.
Claire had taken over the library sofa.
Nobody trusted anybody enough to go home.
Marcus placed a laptop on the breakfast table.
“I checked every login.”
Daniel poured coffee and did not drink it.
“And?”
“Your credentials were used from inside the house.”
“Which device?”
“That is the problem.”
Marcus rotated the laptop.
“The device ID was spoofed to match your study desktop.”
Daniel stared at him.
“Can you tell where it actually came from?”
“Not from the network logs.”
Marcus leaned back.
“But I found something else.”
He opened the door-access records.
The estate used electronic locks on offices, storage rooms, and service corridors.
The nursery did not require a card, but the security room did.
Marcus highlighted a series of entries.
“Someone entered the security room on eight of the eleven days when footage disappeared.”
Daniel looked at the card number.
It belonged to Paul Danner, the estate manager.
Daniel felt a new kind of betrayal.
Paul had worked for the Mercer family for nine years.
He had coordinated Amelia’s funeral.
He had helped Daniel choose Ethan’s crib.
He had stood beside the family during the hardest week of Daniel’s life.
“Where is he?”
Marcus’s expression answered before his words did.
“Gone.”
Daniel set the coffee down.
“What do you mean gone?”
“His room is empty.”
“Car?”
“Not on the property.”
“Phone?”
“Off.”
Daniel swore quietly.
Claire entered the kitchen wearing yesterday’s clothes and carrying her shoes in one hand.
“Please tell me somebody has good news.”
Neither man answered.
She looked between them.
“What happened?”
Daniel told her.
Claire sat slowly.
“Paul?”
“Yes.”
“He loved Amelia.”
Daniel’s face tightened.
“So did I.”
The sentence came out sharper than intended.
Claire did not take offense.
She knew grief had been sitting beneath everything since Amelia died fourteen months earlier.
Amelia Mercer had suffered a sudden cardiac complication six days after Ethan’s birth.
Daniel had been left with a newborn, a company, and a house full of people telling him how strong he needed to be.
Serena had been one of those people.
She had been Amelia’s event coordinator and occasional social friend.
She had appeared at the hospital with coffee.
Then at the funeral with flowers.
Then at the mansion with paperwork Daniel could not bring himself to read.
Six months later, she was still there.
Ten months later, Daniel married her in a small ceremony that half his family thought was too soon.
He had told himself grief did not follow calendars.
Now he wondered whether loneliness had made him blind.
Claire looked toward the hallway.
“Does Serena know Paul is gone?”
“I do not know.”
“Then do not tell her.”
Daniel glanced at his sister.
She shrugged.
“You said facts first.”
“Let her show us whether she already knows.”
At eight, Serena entered the breakfast room in cream slacks and a cashmere sweater.
The mark on her cheek had faded.
Her attorney walked three steps behind her.
She looked at the empty coffee pot.
“Where is Paul?”
Daniel and Claire exchanged a glance.
Daniel kept his face blank.
“Why?”
“He always arranges breakfast when we have guests.”
“He is not here.”
Serena stopped.
Only for half a second.
Then she reached for a cup.
“Did he call in sick?”
“No.”
Daniel watched her fingers.
They were trembling.
Serena set the cup down without filling it.
Her attorney noticed.
So did Claire.
Daniel changed the subject.
“Do you know my network password?”
Serena stared at him.
“Excuse me?”
“My administrator password.”
“No.”
“You have never used it?”
“No.”
“Never seen it?”
Peter Cole stood.
“My client is not going to submit to an interrogation over breakfast.”
Daniel ignored him.
Serena folded her arms.
“I told you I used the event credentials Marcus gave me.”
“Those credentials were not used to delete footage.”
Serena’s eyes narrowed.
“Then who did it?”
Daniel looked directly at her.
“That is what I am going to find out.”
Serena held his gaze.
Then she smiled.
It was not warm.
“I hope you do.”
The police arrived at nine-fifteen because Margaret had called them about the bracelet before Daniel could stop her.
Two detectives interviewed everyone separately.
Lily answered questions in the library while Daniel waited in the hall with Ethan.
Serena sat with her attorney in the dining room.
Margaret remained convinced that the missing bracelet mattered.
Claire remained convinced that Serena’s reaction to Paul’s absence mattered more.
Daniel trusted neither instinct.
He wanted evidence.
Detective Mara Ortiz emerged from the library after forty minutes.
She was in her early forties, direct and unimpressed by wealth.
“Mr. Mercer, I need to ask about Ms. Carter’s employment.”
Daniel nodded.
“Anything.”
“Who hired her?”
Daniel opened his mouth.
Then stopped.
He had approved the final paperwork, but he had not recruited Lily.
“Serena.”
Ortiz wrote something down.
“Interesting.”
“Why?”
“Because your wife told us you insisted on hiring Ms. Carter against her wishes.”
Daniel’s face went cold.
“That is false.”
Ortiz looked toward the dining room.
“Then the stories are separating quickly.”
Daniel shifted Ethan on his arm.
“Are you arresting Lily?”
“Not based on a bracelet found in a bag that multiple people could access.”
Daniel exhaled.
Ortiz continued.
“But I am not clearing anyone either.”
“Fair.”
“She mentioned a notebook.”
“Yes.”
“Missing?”
“Yes.”
Ortiz closed her own notebook.
“People who keep records usually keep copies.”
Daniel looked at her.
“What do you mean?”
“Ask her whether she photographed the pages.”
Daniel found Lily in the nursery after the detectives left.
She was changing Ethan into soft cotton clothes.
He waited until she finished.
“Did you ever take pictures of your notebook?”
Lily froze.
Then she slowly sat down.
“I did once.”
Daniel’s pulse quickened.
“Where?”
“My old phone.”
“Where is it?”
Lily looked toward the small staff hallway.
“In the drawer in my room.”
Daniel called Marcus.
They went together.
Lily’s room had been searched before by security only to document the bracelet accusation, but nobody had removed anything.
The drawer was empty.
Lily stared at it.
“No.”
She pulled the drawer completely out.
Nothing.
“My phone was here.”
Marcus examined the lock.
No damage.
“Who has access?”
Lily laughed bitterly.
“Apparently everyone.”
Daniel felt frustration rise again.
Every piece of evidence seemed to disappear just before they reached it.
Then Lily looked at the bed.
“Wait.”
She knelt and reached beneath the wooden frame.
Her fingers found a strip of tape.
A tiny memory card was attached beneath it.
Daniel stared.
Lily sat back on her heels.
“I forgot I did this.”
Marcus took the card carefully.
“What is on it?”
“I copied photos before I reset the phone.”
Daniel felt hope for the first time all morning.
Marcus inserted the card into an isolated laptop.
There were family photos.
Pictures of Ethan asleep.
Pictures of feeding charts.
Then a folder labeled NOTES.
Inside were thirty-seven photographs of handwritten pages.
Dates.
Times.
Descriptions.
Lily had documented missed meals, unexplained marks, Serena shouting, Serena ordering staff not to enter the nursery, and several occasions when Ethan became unusually sleepy after Serena insisted on giving him a nighttime bottle herself.
Daniel read every line.
His hands started to shake.
Then Marcus reached the final image.
It was not a notebook page.
It was a photograph taken through the half-open study door.
Serena stood at Daniel’s desk.
Beside her was a tall man in a gray coat.
His face was turned toward the camera.
Daniel recognized him immediately.
He had seen that face at Christmas dinners, shareholder meetings, and Amelia’s funeral.
The man standing beside Serena was not a stranger.
May you like
It was Daniel’s uncle, Richard Mercer.
And Richard was the trustee controlling Ethan’s inheritance until the boy turned twenty-five.
