Chapter 4 - THE EVIDENCE LENORA HAD CREATEDGrant didn't sleep.
At 2:13 a.m., he sat at the hotel dining table with his laptop open.
Audrey slept beside Caleb in the bedroom.
Grant watched security footage from his house.
Or tried to.
Something was missing.
Every camera recording between 3:00 p.m. and 8:40 p.m. had been deleted.
Grant called his head of security.
No answer.
He called again.
Voicemail.
Grant's suspicion became certainty.
At 2:31, he contacted the security company directly.
“Who accessed my system today?”
The technician hesitated.
“Mr. Whitmore, someone using an administrator credential.”
“Whose?”
Another pause.
“Yours.”
Grant leaned back.
Impossible.
His credentials were stored inside his private office.
Inside the estate.
He opened remote access logs.
At 3:06 p.m., his account had been activated.
At 3:09, cameras were disabled.
At 8:42, they restarted.
Grant stared at the screen.
His mother had expected him to be in Chicago.
Someone had used his identity.
His phone vibrated.
A message from an unknown number.
DON'T BELIEVE THE VIDEOS.
Grant immediately called.
No answer.
Another message arrived.
MRS. WHITMORE MADE US MOVE THE CAMERA.
Grant typed.
WHO IS THIS?
The reply came thirty seconds later.
MARIA.
Grant stood.
The housekeeper Lenora had supposedly fired.
WHERE ARE YOU?
Maria sent an address.
A twenty-four-hour diner off Interstate 95.
Grant quietly woke Audrey.
“I need to meet someone.”
She sat up.
“Who?”
“Maria.”
Audrey's eyes widened.
Twenty-five minutes later, Grant entered the diner.
Maria sat inside a rear booth.
She looked frightened.
“Mr. Whitmore.”
Grant sat across from her.
“Tell me everything.”
Maria's eyes filled with tears.
“Your mother fired me because I wouldn't lie.”
“About Audrey?”
She nodded.
“She wanted me to say Mrs. Whitmore left the baby alone.”
Grant's jaw tightened.
“She offered money?”
“Ten thousand dollars.”
Grant stared.
Maria slid a flash drive across the table.
“I copied something before she dismissed me.”
“What?”
“Footage.”
Grant inserted the drive into his laptop.
The video showed the upstairs hallway.
Timestamp: Tuesday, 11:14 a.m.
Audrey walked toward the nursery carrying Caleb.
Lenora followed.
There was no sound.
Then Lenora grabbed Audrey's arm.
Audrey pulled away.
Lenora pointed toward the bedroom.
Audrey refused.
A man entered the frame.
Grant recognized him.
Warren Pike.
His mother's attorney.
The video ended.
Grant looked at Maria.
“What happened next?”
“Mrs. Whitmore told me to leave.”
“Did you?”
Maria shook her head.
“I stayed behind the service door.”
Her hands trembled.
“I heard your mother say something.”
“What?”
Maria looked directly at Grant.
“She said, ‘By Christmas, Audrey will be gone, and Caleb will be exactly where he belongs.’”
Grant felt sick.
“Why?”
“I don't know.”
Maria hesitated.
“But there's something else.”
Grant waited.
“Your mother kept going into your father's old study.”
Grant frowned.
That room had been locked for years.
His father, Charles Whitmore, had died seven years earlier.
“What was she doing there?”
“I don't know.”
Maria leaned closer.
“But one night I saw her carrying documents.”
“What kind?”
“Old legal files.”
Grant remembered Audrey's comment about his will.
About Caleb's trust.
About succession.
Suddenly another possibility emerged.
One that had nothing to do with Lenora disliking Audrey.
“What documents?”
Maria shook her head.
“I only saw one name.”
Grant waited.
“Caleb Whitmore.”
Grant stared at her.
“My son wasn't born when my father died.”
“I know.”
May you like
Maria looked frightened.
“That is why I remembered it.”
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