Chapter 367 - 456: Exposed
Mr. Sinclair’s heart sank.
He tried to placate her anyway. "Alright, you check the security footage. I’ll have the butler and the maids search again."
Chloe Sinclair turned her head, her gaze deep and inscrutable.
Mr. Sinclair opened his mouth to speak, but then thought better of it.
Chloe Sinclair quickly connected to her room’s security feed, starting from the previous day. She split the screen into thirty-two separate windows, a dizzying sight.
After just a minute, however, Chloe Sinclair ramped up the playback speed to eight times the normal rate.
Mr. Sinclair stood beside her, astonished. He watched her eyes scan the screens without any sign of strain, but he had to cover his own.
The footage was moving too fast; it strained the eyes.
Suddenly, Chloe Sinclair slammed the pause button.
Mr. Sinclair’s gaze immediately shot to the center of the display.
Then, Chloe Sinclair clicked on one of the video windows and switched to slow-motion playback.
The video showed Tiana Warren hunched over, sneaking into the room when no one was around and tiptoeing like a thief.
Bypassing the large bed in Chloe Sinclair’s room, Tiana Warren walked over to the desk, plugged in her own flash drive, and turned on the computer.
But after failing to find anything useful on the computer, Tiana Warren shut it down and started rummaging through the things on the desk.
And that was when she spotted the small, pink notebook on the desk.
It was easy to guess what happened next.
Mr. Sinclair was surprised, but more than that, he was furious.
Just moments ago, he had wanted Chloe Sinclair to keep looking. After all, kids can be messy, and Tiana Warren was the one who usually cleaned Chloe’s room. He’d worried that if the security footage showed nothing, his daughter’s feelings would be hurt.
But thinking back to the look in Chloe Sinclair’s eyes, Mr. Sinclair understood immediately.
’My little girl knew from the very beginning that her notebook wasn’t lost—it was stolen.’
’And I actually considered making excuses for a thief!’
He didn’t even ask a maid to fetch Tiana Warren. He went downstairs himself.
Tiana Warren was resting at the time and was jolted awake by a sharp KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK on her door. When she opened it, she found Mr. Sinclair standing there, his expression grim.
Realizing how bad the situation was, Tiana Warren began to tremble.
Seeing the guilt in her eyes, Mr. Sinclair shot her a sharp glare, fighting to suppress his rage. "Tiana Warren, come to my study."
Tiana Warren’s face went pale as she cast a guilty glance toward the villa’s main hall.
It was the middle of the night, a time when everyone should have been asleep, yet the main hall was brightly lit. All the maids on the first floor had woken up from the commotion.
Even Aunt Warren, who had just returned from the countryside, came out to see what was happening.
But she never imagined that the center of the commotion was her own niece.
Stunned for a moment, she asked blankly, "Tiana, what’s going on?"
It was as if Tiana Warren hadn’t heard her. One hand gripped the doorframe so tightly her knuckles whitened, yet she seemed to feel nothing.
Mr. Sinclair glanced down at the still-oblivious Aunt Warren. "Aunt Warren, you are Tiana Warren’s guardian. I’ll need you to come as well."
Aunt Warren’s heart pounded with dread. Seeing her niece’s pale, terrified expression, her stomach plummeted, and all she could do was nod.
"Alright..."
The lights in the villa’s main hall were turned off, and silence fell. But in their rooms, many people were still straining their ears, listening for any sound from upstairs.
「Second Floor, Study」
Chloe Sinclair showed the security footage to Aunt Warren and Tiana Warren.
Only after the entire clip had played through did Chloe Sinclair press pause.