Chapter 128: A SHATTERED DAUGHTER
CALLUM’S POV
The dining room in the mansion had been turned into a temporary operations center.
Files covered one end of the table, notebooks occupied the other, and my laptop was between Dane and me with hours of surveillance footage frozen on the screen. Neither of us had touched the breakfast Becca had left behind nearly an hour ago. The tea had gone cold and the food had lost its heat too but we barely noticed.
For such a long time, we’d accepted that we were searching for someone clever enough to disappear without leaving a trace. Because none of it traced back to Osric, or even Vanessa. It didn’t make any sense. Not to mention, the mystery person remained out of reach.
I leaned back in my chair, rubbing a hand over my eyes before restarting the footage for what felt like the hundredth time.
The hallway outside the annex was exactly as it always had. Warriors passed by during patrol shifts. Maids carried baskets of laundry between buildings. Gardeners crossed the courtyard with tools balanced over their shoulders and everything looked painfully ordinary.
If only I wasn’t losing my mind right now.
"Again," I muttered.
Dane didn’t complain. He simply rewound the recording and slowed it further.
We watched every movement in silence, following each person who entered the frame, measuring how long they stayed, where they looked, and when they disappeared. Every few minutes one of us would pause the video, zoom in on a face or point toward a shadow in the corner before realizing it meant absolutely nothing.
Another dead end.
"I’ve gone through this corridor so many times I’m starting to recognize everyone’s walking habits," I said quietly. "That gardener always scratches the back of his neck before turning the corner. The maid carrying flowers always stops to adjust the vase before entering the main building. I’ve memorized routines that have nothing to do with what we’re looking for and it’s annoying me."
Dane’s attention never left the screen. "Sometimes that’s how you find what doesn’t belong."
Something about his answer made me nod. He was right.
People couldn’t fake habits forever.
If someone had come prepared that day, eventually something would stand out.
We moved on to footage from another hallway, then another camera overlooking the gardens leading toward the annex. Piece by piece, we reconstructed the entire afternoon, comparing timestamps with the records Doctor Fenn had given us after examining Keisha months ago.
Nothing.
Absolutely nothing.
The silence between Dane and me wasn’t weird or tense. We’d worked together long enough to know neither of us needed constant conversation. Every now and then one of us would point something out, dismiss another possibility, or eliminate another name from the growing list of people who couldn’t have been responsible.
After another twenty minutes, Dane suddenly stopped the recording. "Wait."
I looked back at the screen. "What is it?"
He didn’t answer immediately. Instead, he pulled another recording from the estate archive and placed the timestamps beside each other. "Look at the clock."
I frowned.
The footage from one camera ended at exactly three twenty-one in the afternoon, but the next available recording began at three forty-three.
Twenty-two minutes were gone.
At first glance, it looked insignificant. Then I realized every other camera had recorded continuously throughout the day. Only this section had disappeared.
I leaned forward so quickly my chair scraped loudly against the floor. "Play it again."
He did and I watched as the recording stopped, then jumped.
I felt my jaw tighten. "That’s not a malfunction."
"No, doesn’t look like it. Very clean."
"It was removed."
Dane nodded once. "Deliberately."
Neither of us spoke for several seconds. Twenty-two missing minutes.
That couldn’t be a coincidence.
"It means whoever planned this knew exactly where our cameras were," I said at last. "They knew how to access the archive afterward, or had someone do it for them."
"And they knew what they needed to erase."
I stared at the frozen screen.
We had spent such a long time believing we had no evidence when, in reality, someone had simply taken it away from us.
The realization was both frustrating and strangely encouraging.
Someone had covered their tracks. That meant someone had tracks to cover.
"I’ll handle the archive personally," I said, already piecing the next steps together in my mind. "Nobody touches another recording until I’ve gone through the server logs. Every person with access to the surveillance system gets questioned quietly."
Dane closed the laptop halfway.
"I was hoping you’d say that."
"If someone erased twenty-two minutes, they made a mistake."
He looked at me. "How?"
"They assumed removing the evidence would make us stop looking."
A cold smile found its way onto my face. "It just told us we’re finally looking in the right direction."
A soft knock interrupted the silence.
Becca stepped into the dining room with her apron still dusted in flour, her expression carrying the politeness she’d always worn whenever she entered during official discussions. "Alpha."
I looked up. "What is it?"
"Miss Vanessa is requesting an audience with you."
I sighed before she had even finished speaking. Ever since I’d returned from the border, Vanessa had found one excuse after another to cross my path.
"I have nothing to discuss with her."
Becca hesitated. "She insisted it was important."
"It isn’t." I closed the laptop. "If it’s about becoming Luna, my answer hasn’t changed. If it’s about anything else, she can speak to someone on the council."
Becca bowed her head. "I’ll let her know."
She disappeared almost as quietly as she’d arrived.
Dane glanced at me before returning to his notes, wisely choosing not to comment.
I had barely reopened the surveillance files when slow footsteps echoed from the hallway. Slow footsteps that sounded heavy with something.
I looked up instinctively and saw that Nadia stood at the entrance.
For a second, I almost didn’t recognize her. Her hair was slightly out of place, her eyes swollen and red, and every bit of energy that usually followed her into a room had vanished. She looked like someone who had wandered there without knowing why, her face pale and her shoulders slumped.
Something inside me tightened immediately and I felt concern roar in my bones. "Nadia."
She raised her head and our eyes met.
Whatever she saw in my face made her expression crumble for the briefest moment before she forced herself to straighten. With a frown, I rose from my chair without thinking. "What happened?"
She didn’t answer so I crossed the room and reached for her shoulder, intending to guide her to a chair.
The instant my hand lifted, she recoiled. "Don’t."
The single word stopped me cold. My hand remained suspended awkwardly between us before I slowly let it fall.
Confusion was evident on my face.
Nadia had hugged me the day before. She had run across the estate just to welcome Vera home. Now she looked at me as though she couldn’t decide whether to cry or run away.
"Nadia..."
She opened her mouth, closed it again and her lips trembled as though she were trying to force out words that refused to come.
There was something she wanted to ask.
I could see it.
But she seemed to hold herself back as a tear slipped down her cheek.
She wiped it away angrily, shook her head at herself, then looked at me one last time. Without another word, she turned and hurried toward the staircase.
By the time I reached the hallway, she’d already disappeared upstairs, her room door slammed shut, while I stood there confused.
What the hell had happened?