CHAPTER 12: Serena's Smile Meets the Security Feed

The lobby screens changed without warning.
Blackwood Hall's promotional footage vanished. In its place appeared grainy estate video from three years earlier: Mara at the front gate in rain, one hand on her stomach, Serena standing beneath an umbrella, a guard refusing to open the door.
Adrian's mother appeared on the screen next, handing Serena an envelope.
The room watched without speaking.
Serena whispered, 'Turn it off.'
No one did.
The footage shifted to a hallway camera. Serena entered Adrian's study with his phone in her hand. She deleted call logs. She placed the phone in a drawer. She looked directly at the camera and smiled, believing the device had been disabled.
Mara's voice remained even. 'Your security director backed up everything after my disappearance. He thought I was dead. That made him brave.'
Adrian turned toward Serena, but she was no longer looking at him. She was watching the room measure the distance between elegance and prison.