Chapter 6 - The Nanny Claire Chose.
Victor wanted Elena removed from the penthouse immediately.
Every instinct that had made him successful told him she had entered his home under false pretenses.
Every instinct that had made him a terrible father warned him that Nino would wake screaming if she disappeared.
For once, Victor chose not to act on the first instinct.
"Tell me everything," he said.
Elena sat beside Nino's bed.
"Claire contacted me through a child advocacy clinic where I volunteered."
Victor frowned.
"She told you I abused Nino?"
"No."
"Then why would she contact a clinic?"
"Because she was afraid someone around him was using his distress to build a case that he was unstable."
Victor felt sick.
"A case for what?"
"Custody."
Elena explained that Claire believed Beatrice wanted permanent control of Nino if anything happened to either parent.
Under the Hale family trust, control of Victor's voting shares could pass temporarily to a guardian acting for Nino if Victor became incapacitated or legally unfit.
Claire had feared that Nino's behavioral records were being manipulated to portray the child as severely disturbed and Victor as an incapable parent.
"Why did Claire choose you?" Victor asked.
Elena hesitated.
"Because I believed her."
"That is not enough."
"Because my mother worked for your family twenty years ago."
Victor stared at her.
Elena's mother, Marisol Brooks, had been a night nurse for Victor's father during his final illness.
After his death, Marisol was dismissed without explanation and made to sign a confidentiality agreement.
Years later, she told Elena that Beatrice Hale never forgave disobedience.
"Claire knew my mother's name," Elena said.
"She thought I would understand what fear looked like inside a wealthy family."
Victor paced to the window.
"And the key?"
"She said it opened a safe-deposit box."
"Where?"
"She never told me."
Victor laughed bitterly.
"Convenient."
Elena reached into her pocket and handed him a folded receipt.
It was from a private bank on Park Avenue.
Box 417.
Victor looked at the date.
Three weeks before Claire's death.
His phone rang.
The forensic laboratory had a preliminary result on the red cup.
Victor answered on speaker.
The technician's voice was calm.
"Mr. Hale, we found traces of digoxin and a sedative compound in the residue."
Victor gripped the edge of the dresser.
Digoxin could be medically useful in controlled doses.
In excess, it could trigger dangerous heart rhythms.
Claire had never been prescribed it.
"Are you certain?"
"We are repeating the test, but the first result is clear."
Elena closed her eyes.
Victor ended the call and immediately dialed the district attorney.
Before he could press send, a security alarm sounded through the penthouse.
The lights flickered.
The private elevator locked.
Then smoke began pouring from the study.
Victor ran.
The hidden wall cavity was already burning.
Someone had entered the penthouse through the service corridor.
Security cameras showed only a masked figure.
Victor grabbed the metal box just before flames reached it.
Inside was a second recorder and a handwritten ledger.
But the attacker had taken one thing.
Claire's letter.
On the white wall beside the flames, someone had written six words in black marker.
"FIRE THE NANNY OR LOSE THE BOY."
The message on the wall changed Elena's role in Victor's mind.
Until that moment, she had been an employee who knew too much.
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Now someone else knew exactly what she meant to Nino and was willing to threaten a child to remove her.
Victor hated that this made her more important, because importance created another person he could fail to protect.
