The water dripping from Maya Lin’s uniform was ice-cold, but the shock that paralyzed her blood was far worse.

The pages were filled with Maya’s neat, careful handwriting.

“June 12: Leo smiled for the first time today when I showed him the blue wooden duck. He looks so much like his mother when he smiles.”

“July 4: Mr. Vance worked until 11 PM tonight. Left dinner in the fridge for him. Leo was fussy, but I sang the lullaby Mrs. Vance used to play on the piano, and he fell right asleep.”

“August 18: Victoria arrived today. She doesn't like the baby making noise. She told me to keep him in the nursery whenever Mr. Vance isn't home.”

Arthur flipped through the pages, his chest tightening with every line. This was not the journal of a cold, calculating child-killer. It was the intimate, loving record of a woman who cared for his son with every ounce of her soul.

Then, he reached the entries from the past week.

“August 24: I am worried. I saw Victoria in Mr. Vance’s private study today while he was at the office. She was going through the floor safe behind the painting. When she saw me, she screamed at me to get out and threatened to have me fired.”

“August 27: Something is wrong with the brake on the heavy stroller. I fixed it twice, but today I noticed the metal pin was deliberately filed down. I tried to tell Mr. Vance, but Victoria intercepted me at the door and said he was too busy to listen to my domestic complaints.”

Arthur stopped breathing.

The stroller brake had been filed down.

He slammed the notebook shut, his heart hammering against his ribs like a trapped bird.

“Check the cameras, Arthur!” Maya’s desperate voice echoed in his head. “Look at the patio security cameras!”

Arthur stood up, carefully laying Leo back in his crib. He walked out of the nursery and headed straight down the grand staircase toward the basement, where the estate's central server room was housed.

The heavy steel door to the server room was unlocked.

Arthur pushed it open. Inside, surrounded by blinking blue lights and hums of cooling fans, stood the estate’s chief security consultant, Marcus Vance—Arthur’s second cousin, whom Victoria had recommended for the job two months ago.

Marcus was sitting at the main console, a USB flash drive plugged into the master tower.

"Marcus?" Arthur demanded, his voice ringing through the quiet room. "What are you doing down here at midnight?"

Marcus jumped out of his chair, nearly knocking over his coffee cup, his face flushing crimson. "Arthur! I... I was just running a diagnostic on the system! You know, fixing the glitch that caused the patio cameras to fail today."

Arthur walked slowly up to the console. He looked at the monitor screen.

A file transfer progress bar was sitting at 98%.

The file name read: PATIO_CAM_04_BACKUP_RAW.MP4.