. CHAPTER 4 — The Camera They Forgot
The security room was behind the west corridor, past the coat check and the staff pantry, hidden behind a door that most guests mistook for a utility closet. Nora knew it because she had spent half her childhood hiding in forgotten corners of Whitmore House.
She did not carry Lily there herself. A young doctor from the guest list reached them first, a woman with steady hands and a furious expression. “I’m an ER physician,” she said. “Let me check her.”
Nora hesitated for only a heartbeat before letting the doctor examine Lily at a sofa near the hallway. The cut was shallow but frightening, the doctor said. Lily needed cleaning, bandaging, and monitoring. No ambulance sirens yet—but no cover-up either.
Nora nodded, then turned toward the west corridor.
Sebastian blocked her path.
His handsome face had gone pale beneath the heat of his anger. “You don’t want to do this.”
“You’re right,” Nora said. “I never wanted any of this.”
“Then stop.”
Behind him, Arthur approached with two security men. Evelyn stood farther back, already whispering to a board member, already preparing the public version.
Nora looked at Sebastian and saw not a brother, not really. She saw a lifetime of rooms rearranged around his temper. She saw their parents polishing his reputation with everyone else’s blood.
“Move,” she said.
He laughed once. “Or what?”
A small voice answered from the sofa behind them. “Or I will.”
Everyone turned.
Lily sat with a white cloth pressed to her forehead, tears drying on her cheeks. The doctor’s hand rested gently on her shoulder. The child was shaking, but her eyes stayed on Sebastian.
“My mom told me,” Lily whispered, “if the Whitmores ever hurt me, find the camera.”
Sebastian froze.
Nora felt the floor tilt under her.
“What did you say?” she asked softly.
Lily swallowed. “Mom said Miss Nora would understand. She said the camera keeps what rich people forget.”
Arthur’s expression changed so quickly most people missed it. But Nora did not. For the first time all evening, her father looked afraid.
Not of scandal.
Of proof that existed before tonight.
Nora turned to the nearest security guard. “Open the room.”
He glanced at Arthur.
May you like
Nora’s voice sharpened. “Open it now, or every guest in this house will know you chose obstruction in front of a bleeding child.”
The guard reached for his keys.
