Chapter 4 - The Missing Hours
Mateo Ruiz had managed the mansion’s security system for six years.
He did not enjoy being summoned at eight on a Sunday morning.
He enjoyed what he found even less.
“There are gaps.”
Domenico stood beside him in the security room.
“How many?”
“Four.”
The cameras covering the private-study corridor had gone offline four times during the previous two months.
Each interruption lasted between eighteen and forty minutes.
“Equipment failure?”
“No.”
“How can you tell?”
Mateo enlarged the activity log.
“Somebody manually disabled that camera group.”
“Who?”
“The command came through an administrative household account.”
Domenico’s jaw tightened.
“Mine?”
“No.”
Mateo hesitated.
“Valentina’s.”
Domenico said nothing.
Mateo continued quickly.
“That does not necessarily mean she physically did it. Anyone with her tablet or credentials could have.”
“When?”
Mateo read the dates.
Three aligned with late-night estate access by Marcus.
The fourth occurred the previous Tuesday—the night Clara saw light beneath Sofia’s morning-room door.
Domenico looked toward the monitor.
“Can deleted footage be recovered?”
“If the cameras were disabled, there is no footage to recover.”
“What about other cameras?”
Mateo pulled up exterior views.
At 11:48 p.m. Tuesday, Marcus’s car entered the south gate.
At 1:17 a.m., he left.
He had never been logged as an overnight guest.
Domenico called Valentina into the library.
Mateo remained.
“So now I am being interrogated by employees?” she asked.
Domenico put the log on the table.
“Your account disabled the study cameras.”
“I didn’t.”
“Marcus was here during three of those gaps.”
“I didn’t know that.”
“You gave him access.”
“For work.”
“At midnight?”
Valentina looked toward Mateo.
“Leave.”
Mateo looked at Domenico.
“Stay.”
Valentina’s eyes hardened.
“You’re humiliating me in front of staff.”
Domenico almost laughed.
The hypocrisy was too precise.
Instead he said, “Did you disable the cameras?”
“No.”
“Did you give Marcus your password?”
“I may have.”
“When?”
“Months ago.”
“Why?”
“He was coordinating security upgrades.”
Mateo shook his head.
“He had his own account.”
Valentina looked at him sharply.
Domenico noticed.
“So he never needed yours.”
“No,” Mateo said.
Valentina took a breath.
“I didn’t know that.”
Domenico believed she was frightened.
He did not yet know whether she was frightened because she had been deceived or because she had been caught.
“Where is Sofia’s ledger?”
“I don’t know.”
“Where is the blue folder?”
“I don’t know.”
“Why did you pack Ruby’s room?”
“I told you.”
“Because she entered my study?”
“Yes.”
“Or because she saw Marcus there?”
Valentina’s hand tightened around the edge of the table.
“That is absurd.”
Domenico leaned forward.
“Then help me make it absurd.”
“How?”
“Give me your phone.”
She froze.
Mateo looked away.
Valentina’s voice became very quiet.
“No.”
Domenico sat back.
He had not expected agreement.
The refusal still hurt.
“I’m not demanding your private messages.”
“You just asked for my phone.”
“I’m asking whether Marcus contacted you on those nights.”
“And I said no.”
“Then show me those messages.”
“You don’t trust me.”
“No.”
The word landed without decoration.
Valentina stared.
Domenico continued.
“I trusted you yesterday morning.”
Her face changed.
He hated himself slightly for saying it.
But trust was not a gift he could pretend remained intact.
Valentina walked out.
Within thirty minutes, her attorney called.
That told Domenico more than any argument could.
By afternoon, the mansion felt less like a home than a site under preservation order.
Domenico instructed staff not to discard documents.
Adrian began an independent accounting review.
Mateo exported security logs.
Domenico called the attorney who administered Sofia’s charitable foundation.
The original documents were safe.
The missing handwritten ledger could help identify suspicious vendors, but nobody could alter the foundation itself using the copies in the cedar box.
That was a relief.
It also made the theft stranger.
“Why take the ledger?” Domenico asked.
The attorney, Evelyn Shaw, answered carefully.
“If Sofia noted contractor relationships or concerns, someone might want to know what she had written.”
“But she died three years before Aurelia existed.”
“Perhaps the concern predates Aurelia.”
That evening Domenico opened Sofia’s old notebooks.
He read until midnight.
Most were ordinary.
Meeting schedules.
Donation figures.
Architect names.
Then, in a notebook dated four years earlier, he found one line circled twice:
M. says use Laurent crews again. Pricing inflated. D. trusts him too easily. Need independent bids.
Domenico read it again.
M.
Marcus had known Sofia before her illness.
Valentina had introduced her brother to the family years before she and Domenico became romantically involved.
At the time Marcus ran a construction-consulting business.
Domenico had occasionally used his recommendations.
He had forgotten.
Sofia had not.
Ruby appeared in the doorway.
“Daddy?”
He immediately closed the notebook.
“You should be asleep.”
“I had the bad dream.”
He lifted her onto the sofa.
“What happened in the dream?”
Ruby pressed Bunny against her face.
“My room disappeared.”
Domenico held her.
“It’s not disappearing.”
“Valentina said Mama’s things make people sad.”
He stopped.
“When?”
“Lots.”
“What did she say?”
Ruby thought with the seriousness only children gave to remembering exact words.
“She said Daddy needs a new family.”
Domenico’s hand tightened around the sofa.
“And what did you say?”
“I am family.”
His eyes burned.
“Yes.”
Ruby looked at him.
“Am I?”
Domenico pulled her close.
“You are the first thing in this house that is not negotiable.”
She did not understand the sentence.
But she understood his arms around her.
After Ruby fell asleep beside him, Domenico opened Sofia’s notebook again.
Beneath the circled line was another note.
Marcus furious when I asked for vendor ownership records. Valentina says I’m being suspicious. Keep copies separately.
Domenico stared at the page.
Sofia had seen something years earlier.
May you like
And both Marcus and Valentina had known she was looking.
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