Chapter 2: The Number That Should Not Exist
Part 2 ⬇️
Leo carried Lily upstairs without a word.
The mansion had gone completely silent except for Victoria's soft, practiced crying in the hallway.
Beatrice sat on the bottom cellar step, unable to stand.
Her legs had stopped working.
Her hands were still shaking.
Then she heard it.
"She was going to die down there, Leo.
You know that."
Mateo's voice.
Low.
Flat.
Not a question.
A long pause.
Then Leo said, "How long has this been going on?"
No one answered.
Beatrice gripped the stair rail and pulled herself up.
When she reached the kitchen doorway, she saw Victoria standing with her arms crossed, her tears already dry, her chin lifted.
"I want her out of this house tonight," Victoria said.
"She put her hands on me.
I have marks."
Leo didn't look at Victoria.
He was looking at Lily, who had fallen asleep against his shoulder, one small fist still curled around her stuffed rabbit.
"Mateo," he said quietly.
"Pull the security footage.
All of it.
Today.
Yesterday.
The whole week."
Victoria's face changed.
It wasn't fear exactly.
It was something colder.
The look of someone who had already thought about the cameras — and wasn't sure what they had caught.
"Leo, darling—"
"Don't." He finally turned to face her.
"Don't say another word."
Then his phone rang.
He glanced at the screen and went completely still.
May you like
It was a number he hadn't seen in two years.
A number that should not have existed anymore.
