Chapter 3 - The Room Without a Lock.
Nathan took Isabella upstairs and stopped outside her bedroom.
The door was open.
The room looked wrong before he understood why.
The shelves were empty.
The books were gone.
The framed watercolor Amelia had painted for Isabella's nursery was missing from the wall.
Even the soft yellow blanket that usually rested across the bed had disappeared.
The room had been stripped until it looked like a guest room waiting for strangers.
"Where is everything?" Nathan asked.
Isabella looked toward the floor.
"In the bags."
Nathan opened the closet.
Three more black garbage bags were stacked behind the door.
His hands began to shake.
One bag held books.
Another held toys.
The third held photographs, birthday cards, and small objects Amelia had left behind before her death.
Camille had not punished Isabella by removing clutter.
She had erased her.
Nathan turned toward his daughter.
"Why didn't you call me?"
The question escaped before he could stop it.
Isabella's face crumpled with guilt.
"I tried."
Nathan immediately hated himself for asking it that way.
"No, sweetheart, I'm sorry."
He knelt.
"You didn't do anything wrong."
Isabella reached beneath her mattress and pulled out a small plastic phone case.
It was empty.
"She took my watch first."
Nathan had bought Isabella a child-safe watch that could call only him, the housekeeper, and emergency services.
"Then she took the tablet."
"Where are they?"
"I don't know."
A floorboard creaked in the hallway.
Nathan looked up.
Camille stood at the doorway.
"This is becoming theatrical."
Nathan rose slowly.
"Where is her watch?"
"Confiscated."
"Where is it?"
"Safe."
"I asked where."
Camille crossed her arms.
"You do not get to interrogate me in my own home."
Nathan stared at her.
"This is Isabella's home."
Camille laughed once.
"There it is."
"What?"
"The guilt."
She stepped into the room.
"You have spent three years trying to compensate for Amelia dying, and Isabella has learned exactly how to use that wound."
Nathan felt Isabella's fingers tighten around the back of his jacket.
Camille continued.
"She lies because you reward tears."
Nathan's voice dropped.
"Leave the room."
Camille ignored him and looked directly at Isabella.
"Tell him why you were in my office."
Isabella shook her head.
"Tell him."
Nathan stepped between them.
"I said leave."
Camille's jaw tightened.
"She was searching my desk."
Isabella's voice came from behind him.
"I was looking for my watch."
Camille smiled coldly.
"And she found things that do not concern a child."
Nathan caught the strange wording.
"What things?"
Camille said nothing.
Nathan walked past her toward the hall.
"Where are you going?"
"Your office."
She moved quickly enough to grab his arm.
It was the first time she had lost control of her pace.
Nathan looked down at her hand.
Camille released him.
"There are private financial documents in there."
"Then I assume my daughter didn't bruise herself reading them."
Nathan continued down the hall.
Camille followed.
Isabella followed several steps behind them.
At the office door, Nathan found a new keypad lock installed above the handle.
"When did you put this here?"
"Last week."
Nathan entered the master code.
The light flashed red.
He tried again.
Red.
Camille's mouth curved slightly.
"I changed it."
Nathan turned toward her.
"Why?"
"Because I live here too."
Isabella suddenly whispered, "Dad."
Nathan looked at her.
She pointed toward the baseboard beside the office door.
A tiny dark circle was embedded in the wood.
Nathan crouched and recognized the lens of an old security camera installed years ago after a burglary.
The camera belonged to a system Camille had never used because she believed it was disconnected.
Nathan had forgotten it existed.
Isabella had not.
"The cameras she doesn't know about," Nathan said.
Camille's face went pale.
Then she smiled again.
"Go ahead."
The confidence in her voice frightened him.
May you like
"Check them."
Nathan suddenly understood that whatever the cameras contained, Camille believed she had already gotten there first.
