Lucien's POV
I spent the entire morning locked in my study, staring at the security terminal until my eyes physically burned. The sun climbed high over the estate, throwing bright panels of light across the desk, but the room felt cold regardless. I was reviewing every frame of footage from the night of the blackout, hunting for a fraction of a second of static, a distorted shadow, anything.
There was nothing on the tapes.
The backup generators had kept storage running without a single interruption. The corridor outside Lila's wing showed empty, moonlit carpet until the second she cracked her door open. My office feed showed the room vacant until she stepped inside, Maya close behind her. No shadow at my desk. No thumb drive. A flawless loop of absolute nothing.
Which meant one of two
