Chapter 2 - HADLEY DIDN’T WANT HER FATHER TO HUG HEREverett entered the mansion twenty-nine minutes later.
He didn’t shout.
He wanted to.
Every part of him wanted to scream Seraphina’s name loud enough to shake the windows.
But Doreen’s warning replayed in his head.
Hadley was frightened.
This was about her.
Not his anger.
Doreen met him near the staircase.
“She’s upstairs.”
“Hadley?”
“Yes.”
“Seraphina?”
“In the sunroom.”
“She knows I’m home?”
“The car came through the front gate.”
Everett nodded.
“Stay with me.”
They went upstairs.
Doreen unlocked her bedroom door.
Hadley sat on the edge of the bed wearing dry pajamas.
A towel lay around her shoulders.
She looked tiny.
Everett stepped inside.
“Sweetheart.”
Hadley looked up.
Her eyes widened.
Then she moved backward.
Everett stopped.
He had expected her to run to him.
That was what Hadley always did.
Even at eight.
She would hear the front door and come flying through the hall yelling:
“Dad!”
Now she backed away.
That single movement nearly destroyed him.
“It’s me.”
“I know.”
Her voice was quiet.
Everett crouched.
He didn’t move closer.
“I saw Doreen’s video.”
Hadley looked immediately at Doreen.
Fear.
“Am I in trouble?”
Everett felt something crack inside his chest.
“No.”
“But she said recording people is illegal.”
“You’re not in trouble.”
Hadley’s eyes filled.
“Doreen isn’t?”
“No.”
“She helped me.”
“I know.”
Everett wanted to hug her.
He didn’t.
Instead:
“Can I come closer?”
Hadley hesitated.
Then nodded.
He moved slowly.
Sat on the carpet in front of her.
“What happened in the bathroom?”
Hadley rubbed her hands together.
“I made her mad.”
“How?”
“I got water on the floor.”
Doreen’s jaw tightened.
Everett asked:
“Was that why your clothes were wet?”
Hadley looked down.
“No.”
“Can you tell me?”
Silence.
Everett waited.
Finally:
“She made me stay under the shower.”
Everett’s hands clenched against his knees.
“Was the water cold?”
Hadley nodded.
“How long?”
“I don’t know.”
“Has she done that before?”
Hadley looked toward the open doorway.
Doreen quietly closed it.
The girl whispered:
“Yes.”
Everett had to breathe through his nose.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“She said you’d think I was lying.”
“Did you ever try?”
Hadley’s eyes dropped.
“Once.”
Everett knew instantly.
“When?”
“When you came home from Dallas.”
Two weeks earlier.
Hadley had entered his office while he was answering emails.
She said Seraphina had been “really mad.”
Everett remembered saying:
Sweetheart, Seraphina has been doing a lot for you. Try to make things easier for her.
Then he took a call.
He felt sick.
“What were you trying to tell me?”
“That she locked the bathroom.”
Everett looked away.
Hadley continued.
“She said I had to learn.”
“Learn what?”
“To stop asking questions.”
Everett slowly looked back.
“What questions?”
Hadley hesitated.
“About the cameras.”
His pulse changed.
“What about them?”
“She told everyone they broke.”
“Yes.”
“But sometimes I saw the lights.”
Everett stared.
“You noticed?”
Hadley nodded.
“Mom taught me.”
His breath caught.
Hadley’s biological mother, Laurel, had died four years earlier in a highway accident.
Laurel had been meticulous about home security.
She used to test smoke detectors herself.
Check window locks twice.
Teach Hadley little things.
Apparently including camera lights.
“What did Mom tell you?”
“Green means somebody can see.”
Everett felt cold.
“And you told Seraphina?”
“No.”
“Then how did she know you noticed?”
Hadley looked toward Doreen.
“I asked why one camera blinked at night.”
“When?”
“A month ago.”
“What did she say?”
“That I was imagining it.”
“Then?”
“She started getting mad when I looked at them.”
Everett thought about the fake service report.
The hidden access.
Seraphina didn’t merely want him to believe the cameras were dead.
She needed Hadley to stop noticing they were alive.
“Did she ever ask you about a camera specifically?”
Hadley nodded.
“The one in Mom’s old room.”
Everett froze.
Laurel’s old dressing room had been closed since her death.
He rarely entered it.
Seraphina hated the room and had once suggested renovating it.
Everett refused.
“What did she ask?”
“If I knew the password.”
“What password?”
Hadley shrugged.
“I don’t know.”
“Did your mom ever give you one?”
“No.”
Then Hadley frowned.
“Maybe.”
Everett leaned forward.
“What do you mean?”
“She used to say a thing.”
“What thing?”
Hadley looked embarrassed.
“It was a game.”
Everett smiled gently.
“Tell me.”
“She’d point at cameras and say, ‘Who watches the watcher?’”
Everett’s skin prickled.
“What did you say?”
Hadley thought.
“Moonlight.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did Seraphina hear that?”
Hadley immediately shook her head.
“No.”
“Good.”
Everett didn’t know why he said it.
But something told him the phrase mattered.
A knock sounded.
Seraphina.
“Everett?”
Hadley’s entire body stiffened.
Everett saw it.
He stood.
Seraphina opened the door without permission.
She looked composed.
Elegant cream blouse.
Perfect makeup.
No trace of the woman in Doreen’s video.
“Can we talk?”
Everett stepped between her and Hadley.
“Yes.”
“Alone.”
“No.”
Her expression tightened.
“Everett.”
“Did you tell me the cameras were broken?”
Seraphina stared.
“Yes.”
“Were they?”
A pause.
“As far as I knew.”
“Who repaired them?”
“I don’t know.”
“No one.”
She blinked.
“The service company has no record of coming here.”
Seraphina looked toward Doreen.
There.
Not surprise.
Calculation.
Everett saw it.
“You forged the service report.”
“No.”
“Then who did?”
“I don’t know.”
Hadley whispered from behind him:
“She does.”
Seraphina’s eyes snapped toward the girl.
Hadley flinched.
Everett stepped forward.
“Do not look at her like that.”
Seraphina’s face changed.
“You’re letting a child manipulate you.”
Everett went still.
Hadley made a tiny sound behind him.
He turned.
She had begun crying again.
Everett looked back at his wife.
“You need to leave this room.”
“This is my house too.”
“Not this room.”
Seraphina stared at him.
Then said quietly:
“You have no idea what those cameras are connected to.”
Everett’s pulse jumped.
“What does that mean?”
She realized she had said too much.
He stepped closer.
“Connected to what?”
Seraphina’s eyes shifted toward the hallway camera.
Then back to him.
May you like
And for the first time that night—
she looked afraid.
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