Chapter 2: The Service Logbook and the First Crack
The chandelier light seemed to dim as the seconds stretched into an oppressive eternity. Luca leaned back in his leather chair, the leather creaking softly in the quiet room, and gestured to the head security guard standing by the door.
"Bring me the afternoon visitor logs for the service wing," Luca ordered, his dark eyes shifting from Vanessa to the guard.
The guard nodded sharply, stepping back toward the small side panel near the kitchen entrance where the digital registry terminal was housed. He tapped a rapid sequence into the wall-mounted keypad, his earpiece blinking with a steady blue light as he communicated with the outer detail. Every pair of eyes in the dining room followed his movements, the tension tightening like a coiled spring.
Vanessa gripped the edge of her seat so hard her knuckles turned white, her red dress rustling as she shifted restlessly. "This is absurd, Luca. You're letting a domestic employee dictate the mood of the entire evening over a malfunctioning intercom."
"She didn't malfunction," I said before I could stop myself, the words slipping out in a quiet, defensive whisper.
Vanessa’s head snapped toward me, her eyes flashing with sudden, venomous fury. "Nobody asked you a damn thing, you stupid little maid. You were hired to scrub floors and stay out of sight."
"Let her speak," Luca intervened smoothly, his voice flat and authoritative as he raised a single tattooed hand to silence Vanessa's outburst. He turned his gaze fully onto me, studying me with the clinical detachment of a man weighing an asset against a liability. "You saw it before I picked it up. Tell me exactly what it looked like when you pulled the chair."
I swallowed hard, keeping my hands neatly folded in front of my apron. "It was taped directly to the underside of the dark velvet cushion, sir. Right beneath where you sit. The wire was run through the upholstery seam so it wouldn't show from the outside."
The security guard returned from the side panel holding a heavy leather-bound ledger and a printed digital sheet, walking briskly across the polished marble floor. He placed both items directly in front of Luca.
"Sir, the afternoon logs show two unauthorized access pings in the service corridor near the dining hall around three o'clock," the guard reported, his voice steady. "Both badges belong to external catering staff who left the estate an hour before dinner service began."
Vanessa’s breath hitched. "They were vetted by the agency. I didn't hire them directly."
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Luca slowly opened the ledger, his fingers turning the heavy paper pages until he reached the marked entry. He didn't look up as he spoke. "The agency doesn't use those specific access codes, Vanessa. Those codes belong to the private security annex—the same annex you personally supervised last month."
The silence in the dining room returned, deeper and more dangerous than before, as Vanessa stared across the table with wide, trapped eyes.
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