Chapter 9 — The Missing Page
1926 Words
The next morning, Sera found the note on her desk.
She had not left it there.
She stood in the doorway of the small study assigned to her and looked at it without moving.
The room was empty.
The curtains were open.
Nothing appeared disturbed.
Except the note.
She walked closer.
It was the same piece of paper from the dinner.
Three words.
**You remember wrong.**
She had put it in her pocket before leaving the dining room.
She was certain.
Sera picked it up.
The paper was ordinary.
Cheap.
No watermark.
No scent.
No handwriting that she could identify.
She turned it over.
Blank.
Her fingers tightened slightly.
Someone had entered her room.
Or someone had access to it.
Neither possibility was acceptable.
She checked the door.
No damage.
The lock appeared untouched.
She looked at the desk.
Then the chair.
Then the window.
Nothing.
Her eyes stopped at the curtains.
The left curtain was folded differently from the right.
She had noticed it last night.
She simply hadn't cared.
Now she did.
Sera walked to the window.
Behind the curtain was a narrow security sensor.
The light was green.
She crouched.
There was a tiny scratch beneath it.
Fresh.
She touched the edge with one finger.
Then withdrew her hand.
Someone hadn't broken in.
Someone had opened the window.
From inside.
Sera stood slowly.
Her first thought was Lucien.
Her second was that Lucien would not be careless enough to leave evidence like this.
Her third was worse.
Someone else had access to the house.
She picked up her phone.
She almost called him.
Then stopped.
She hated owing people explanations.
Especially when she didn't yet know what she was explaining.
Instead, she took a photograph of the sensor.
Then another of the note.
Only after that did she leave the room.
---
Lucien was in his office when she entered.
He was reading a financial report.
He looked up.
“You're early.”
“You said that yesterday.”
“I noticed.”
She placed the note on his desk.
His eyes dropped to it.
Then lifted to her face.
“Where did you get this?”
“It was in my room.”
He became completely still.
“When?”
“This morning.”
“Who had access?”
“I don't know.”
He picked up the paper.
“Did you leave it there last night?”
“No.”
“Are you sure?”
Sera looked at him.
“Yes.”
Lucien studied her for a moment.
Then pressed the intercom.
“Adrian.”
A voice answered immediately.
“Sir?”
“Get security footage from the east corridor. From midnight to six this morning.”
“Understood.”
Lucien ended the call.
Sera remained standing.
“You believe me.”
“I believe you saw what you saw.”
“That's not the same thing.”
“No.”
She watched him.
“You're careful.”
“So are you.”
His gaze moved to the note again.
“Did you touch anything else?”
“The security sensor near my window.”
Lucien's eyes sharpened.
“Show me.”
They went upstairs.
Sera stopped outside her room.
Lucien entered first.
He looked around once.
Then again.
His eyes moved differently from hers.
Not searching for an object.
Searching for changes.
He walked toward the window.
“You're right.”
Sera folded her arms.
“You didn't doubt me.”
“I doubted the conclusion.”
“Fair.”
He crouched beside the sensor.
“Security should have flagged this.”
“Unless the system was disabled.”
Lucien looked at her.
“Exactly.”
He stood.
“Adrian.”
Adrian appeared at the door several minutes later.
“Sir.”
“Check the sensor logs.”
Adrian examined the device.
“There was a three-minute interruption at 2:13.”
Sera's eyes narrowed.
“Three minutes?”
“Yes.”
“Long enough to enter.”
“Possibly.”
Lucien looked at Adrian.
“Who was on security duty?”
“Two officers.”
“Interview them.”
“Already doing it.”
“Good.”
Adrian hesitated.
“There is another issue.”
Lucien looked at him.
“The camera covering this corridor went offline for forty seconds.”
“When?”
“2:14.”
Sera looked at the sensor.
One minute after the interruption.
She said quietly:
“They knew the system.”
Lucien nodded.
“Or someone inside gave them access.”
Adrian looked between them.
“There's more.”
He handed Lucien a tablet.
A security photograph showed a staff member walking through the eastern corridor at 2:18.
Sera recognized him.
The same man who had delivered the note during dinner.
Her expression changed.
“That man.”
Lucien looked at her.
“You know him?”
“He brought me the note last night.”
Adrian checked the record.
“His name is Thomas Reed. Temporary service staff.”
“Where is he?”
“Gone.”
Lucien's jaw tightened.
“When?”
“His shift ended at midnight.”
Sera looked at the photograph.
“He wasn't the person who entered my room.”
Lucien looked at her.
“How do you know?”
“He was too visible.”
Adrian frowned.
Sera explained.
“Someone who enters a private room without being noticed doesn't walk through a corridor under a camera two hours later.”
Lucien considered that.
“He may have been an accomplice.”
“Maybe.”
Sera looked at the photograph again.
“But if he wanted me to find the note, he did exactly what he needed to do.”
Lucien's eyes narrowed.
“So the note wasn't meant to be hidden.”
“No.”
“It was meant to be found.”
Sera nodded.
“And moved.”
Silence.
The note had been placed on her desk.
Not left outside her room.
Not slipped beneath the door.
Placed.
That meant whoever entered had enough time to stand inside her room.
Close to her belongings.
Close enough to touch her life.
Sera felt something cold move through her chest.
She straightened her sleeve.
Lucien noticed.
He didn't comment.
Instead, he said:
“We're changing rooms.”
“No.”
“Sera.”
“If I move now, whoever did this will know the message worked.”
Lucien stared at her.
“You're assuming there will be another one.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because they wanted me to react.”
“And if they don't?”
“Then we've lost nothing.”
Lucien was silent.
She met his eyes.
“You said last night that we were partners.”
“I remember.”
“Then trust my judgment.”
Something changed in his expression.
Very slightly.
Then he nodded.
“Fine.”
No argument.
No attempt to override her.
Sera noticed.
She wasn't sure why that mattered.
---
At ten, Lucien called a family meeting.
Dorian arrived first.
Celeste came five minutes later.
Isolde was last.
She walked into the room holding a coffee and looking mildly irritated.
“I was told this was urgent.”
“It is,” Lucien said.
Dorian sat down.
“What happened?”
Lucien placed a photograph on the table.
Not the note.
The security image.
Dorian looked at it.
“Who is that?”
“Temporary staff.”
“And?”
“He left the estate last night.”
Dorian's expression changed.
“Why?”
“We're investigating.”
Dorian leaned back.
“You're suggesting someone in the household is leaking information.”
“I don't suggest things without evidence.”
“Then what do you have?”
“Enough to know someone accessed a restricted area.”
Dorian looked at Sera.
“And you?”
Sera met his eyes.
“Someone entered my room.”
Silence.
Celeste's expression changed.
“Your room?”
“Yes.”
“Was anything taken?”
“No.”
Dorian frowned.
“Then why?”
Sera reached into her pocket.
She placed the note on the table.
Three words.
Dorian read them.
His face changed.
Only slightly.
But Sera saw it.
A brief tightening around his eyes.
A pause before he looked up.
She remembered the feeling.
She had seen that reaction before.
Not fear.
Recognition.
Dorian said nothing.
Lucien noticed the same thing.
“What is it?” he asked.
Dorian's expression returned to normal.
“Nothing.”
Sera looked at him.
“You recognized it.”
Dorian's eyes moved to her.
“I recognized the handwriting.”
Sera's pulse changed.
“Whose?”
“I don't know.”
“That isn't what you said.”
Dorian's gaze hardened.
“I said I recognized the handwriting.”
“From where?”
He didn't answer.
Lucien leaned forward.
“Uncle.”
Dorian looked at him.
“Twenty years ago,” Lucien said quietly, “did you see this?”
For the first time, Dorian looked genuinely unsettled.
It lasted less than a second.
Then he stood.
“This conversation is over.”
He walked out.
The door closed behind him.
Isolde stared after him.
“That was strange.”
Celeste remained silent.
Sera looked at Lucien.
He was already thinking.
“Do you believe him?” she asked.
“No.”
“Why?”
“He didn't deny recognizing it.”
Sera nodded.
She had reached the same conclusion.
Then Isolde spoke.
“My father doesn't scare easily.”
Lucien looked at her.
“Neither do you.”
“That's because I know when I'm supposed to leave a room.”
She stood.
Then looked at Sera.
“You should learn.”
Sera raised an eyebrow.
“Why?”
Isolde smiled.
“Because in this family, the people who stay too long usually learn something they were never supposed to know.”
Then she left.
Sera watched the door close.
Lucien remained silent.
“Your family is complicated.”
“Yes.”
“Was Dorian involved in the old case?”
Lucien didn't answer immediately.
“I don't know.”
“You suspect it.”
“Yes.”
Sera looked at the note.
“Then we need the missing page.”
Lucien's eyes moved to her.
“What missing page?”
“CASE 17-04.”
She explained.
“When I first found the file, the second page was missing.”
Lucien's expression sharpened.
“You never told me that.”
“You never asked.”
“That isn't something people normally leave out.”
“I don't normally tell people everything.”
He accepted that without argument.
“Where did you find the first page?”
Sera looked at him.
“Not here.”
“Where?”
“My apartment.”
Lucien's eyes narrowed.
“Then someone may have already known you had it.”
Sera nodded.
“That would explain the messages.”
“And the surveillance.”
“And the note.”
Lucien stood.
“Tomorrow, we go through the archive.”
Sera looked toward him.
“Together?”
“Yes.”
She hesitated.
Then nodded.
“Fine.”
Neither of them noticed the quiet sound from the hallway.
A door closing.
Someone had been standing outside.
Listening.
And in the room they had just left, Dorian Ardent stood alone.
He held the photograph of the note in one hand.
His expression was no longer calm.
He looked at the three words again.
**You remember wrong.**
Then he whispered a name no one else could hear.
“Aurelia.”
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