Chapter 2: The Name on the Phone
Lily was breathing.
But Beatrice was not sure she was safe.
Leo carried his daughter upstairs and handed her to the house doctor who had arrived within minutes.
Then he turned around.
Slowly.
The way he had walked toward the kitchen earlier — like a man with nowhere to hurry because the outcome was already decided.
Victoria was still in the hallway.
She had stopped crying.
Her eyes were dry and sharp again, and she had straightened her blouse as if that would fix anything.
"Leo, I want you to think carefully before you do something you'll regret," she said.
"My father has lawyers who—"
"Mateo." Leo did not raise his voice.
"How long was the door locked?"
Mateo checked his phone.
"Security log shows the cellar bolt engaged at 2:14 p.m.
You walked in at 6:47."
Four and a half hours.
Lily had been locked in that freezing cellar for four and a half hours without her inhaler.
Victoria's chin lifted.
"She was perfectly fine when I—"
"She had a blue tint on her lips." Leo took one step toward her.
"My six-year-old daughter had a blue tint on her lips."
Victoria said nothing.
Then Mateo's phone buzzed.
He looked at the screen.
Something shifted in his face — not shock, because Mateo did not shock easily.
Something worse.
Quiet recognition.
He turned the screen toward Leo.
It was a text message.
Sent from Victoria's phone.
Sent three hours ago, while Lily was still locked in the cellar.
The name at the top of the thread made Leo go completely still.
It was the name of the man who had ordered the bombing that k*lled Lily's mother.
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What was in that message — and why did Victoria have that name in her phone?
The truth is darker than anyone in that mansion expected.
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