Chapter 16
1012 Words
Scot:
The call that made me leave the hospital had better be worth it..
As I drove to the office, the soft beep of the hospital monitors still echoed in my mind, my hands clutched around the steering wheel.
I didn't want to leave her. Not that soon
Vanessa had just woken up, still pale,still fragile from the attack. I thought we were going to lose her....iI was going to lose her.
I should have stayed longer by her side, I really hope she felt cared for even in the slightest.
The call I received moments ago had been urgent. It compelled me to leave.
"Sir, you need to come to the office immediately.
There's something you need to see".
The voice on the other end was Harry's, my head of security. He wasn't the type to panic or call me over anything, which meant whatever he had found was serious.
It was something about Vanessa's attack
Something about the person who tried to kill her.
My jaw tightened. Whoever they were, they'd made a mistake. A big one
And I was going to make them regret it.
The towering glass building of my company loomed ahead.
The entire floor was empty, I wasn't surprised it was work hour, but as I stepped out of the elevator and into my office, Harry was already there standing by my desk.
He looked unsettled
"What is it?" I demanded, shrugging off my coat. I folded my hands and remained standing.
"We recovered some deleted footage from the villa's security system," he said. "You need to see it for yourself."
A wave of anticipation coursed through me.
The security footage had been tampered with that night -but if Mark's team had restored it...
I grabbed my coat, and we both headed out
The only source of light in the security office was from the flickering of multiple monitors. The place was dark. I looked at the monitors, and I could see some live feeds from my various properties.
Mark stood in front of one of the screens, arms crossed.
"Tell me what you found".
Mark nodded to his IT guy, a young, sharp-eyed man named Bryan.
"It wasn't really easy," Ryan said. As he adjusted his huge glass, why do tech guys always have glasses on? I wondered, his fingers hovered over the keyboard, keen with anticipation." The footage from the night of the attack was erased from the main server. But...." He turned to me, a slight smirk on his face.
"Whoever did it underestimated our backup system."
I raised my brows. "And you recovered it?"
Bryan nodded
"It wasn't easy," Ryan said, his fingers hovering over the keyboard. "The footage from the night of the attack was erased from the main server. But..." He turned to me, a slight smirk on his face.
"Whoever did it underestimated our backup system."
I raised a brow. "And you recovered it?" Bryan nodded.
"It took hours. The footage was deleted but not overwritten. We ran a deep forensic recovery, and -well, you'll want to see this."
He hit a ket, and a video file popped up on the screen.
I leaned in closer as the footage played.
At first, it showed the quiet exterior of the villa, timestamped for the night of the attack
Then-movement , swift movement. A figure slipped through the side entrance, I remembered the black clothing vividly. There was a cautious movement, their silhouette barely visible in the shadows.
The person was hooded, but in the footage there was no mask on just yet, as they moved closer to the faint l8ggt of a security lamp, they turned their head slightly-just enough for the camera to catch a glimpse of their face
I sucked in a sharp breath, i almost gasped
No
It can't be
It was a woman, not just any random woman
The blood in my veins turned to ice.
it wasn't some hired assassin
It wasn't some faceless enemy
It was my personal assistant
Rachel.
The room fell silent, but inside me , a storm raged.
Rachel had worked beside me for years, i trusted her with everything-from my schedule plannings to my kost confidential business dealings, we went on business trips together, i no longer saw her as a personal assistant, she was a friend
And she turned to kill Vanessa, i clapped my hands, it just didn't make any sense, she doesn't even know Vanessa there was not enough time for a resentment to grow in her for Vanessa
I turned to Mark, hoping he'd just make everything make sense to me. My voice is deadly calm. "Tell me you're wrong".
He sighed ." I wish I was , sir. But we checked. The timestamps match. The way she moves–it's unmistakable. She was there that night, at that exact time."
"Why?"
"We had to investigate thoroughly because it was really hard to believe, we...found something else. In her office".
He pulled out another flash drive and slotted it into the computer. This time ,it wasn't security footage. It was a recording.
I heard Rachel's voice. It was a phone call
"I won't let her have him. He doesn't see it, but he needs me, not her. Never her."
There was a pause. She heaved a sigh
"I'd rather she be dead than watch him love someone else".
Silence.
My own breath felt heavy, ragged. Rachel was really smart to pull this off, I must admit.
She had done this, she had tried to k*ll Vanessa-because she loved me?
That wasn't love. That was an obsession, and I had been blind to it, for how long? Probably for months- years
"Sir, should we be the authority?"
Ryan asked
"No," I replied, my voice cold as steel. "Not yet".
"Where is she?" i asked, looking at Mark
Mark.Straughan "she left the office about an hour ago, but she isn't of all if these yet"
"Good," I said , straightened,"Because I want to look her in the eyes when she explains why she tried to kill Vane...my wife."
- Writer
