Chapter 2 - THE DELETED FOOTAGE
The sprawling Cole Meridian estate was uncharacteristically quiet in the days following the engagement party. Amara moved through the massive rooms like a ghost, her cleaning supplies in hand, head down, eyes focused strictly on the tasks ahead. She needed this job. The brake light on her Honda had finally given out completely, and Nora’s daycare tuition was due on Friday. Pride was a luxury she couldn't afford.
But Amara was not stupid. She remembered the small, domed security camera mounted directly above the outdoor patio bar. It was part of the state-of-the-art system Daniel had designed himself. It recorded everything in razor-sharp high definition.
On Tuesday afternoon, while Daniel was at the corporate office and Vanessa was allegedly at a spa retreat, Amara found herself dusting the server room. The physical backup drives for the house's security system hummed quietly in the corner. Daniel had always been transparent about the security with the staff, trusting them implicitly. He had even shown Amara how to access the basic logs so she could check who was at the front gate when he wasn't home.
Curiosity gnawed at her. She didn't want revenge; she just wanted vindication. She typed in her staff code on the terminal and pulled up the patio feed from Saturday night.
The timeline scrubbed backward.
9:00 PM. The jazz band playing.
8:45 PM. Guests mingling.
8:30 PM... Error.
Amara frowned, clicking the mouse. A black screen stared back at her. The timestamp read 8:25 PM to 8:37 PM. A twelve-minute gap. Exactly the window of time when Vanessa’s champagne glass had shattered on the stone patio.
Someone had manually accessed the server and deleted the footage.
A cold sweat broke out on Amara’s neck. This wasn't just a petty fiancé trying to make a maid look clumsy. This was calculated. This was someone covering their tracks to ensure a specific narrative survived.
Before she could dig deeper, the heavy oak door of the server room creaked open. Amara spun around, her heart hammering against her ribs.
Vanessa stood in the doorway, wearing a designer tracksuit, holding a half-empty green smoothie. She wasn't at the spa.
"Dusting the servers, Amara?" Vanessa’s voice was dripping with something sweet and poisonous. "Or snooping where you don't belong?"
"Just doing my job, Ms. Hale," Amara said, keeping her voice incredibly steady despite the trembling in her hands. She quickly clicked back to the main menu and pulled her dusting cloth out.
Vanessa stepped into the room, the scent of expensive jasmine perfume suffocating the small space. "You know, Daniel is very generous. Too generous, really. He thinks everyone has a good heart. He thinks someone from your... background... can just seamlessly blend into his world without causing trouble."
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Vanessa stepped closer, her blue eyes devoid of the fake tears she had weaponized just days ago. "But I know better. I know exactly what you are. And by the time the wedding arrives, you won't be here."
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