Chapter 2 - The Camera Celia Forgot
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Damian carried Lily away from the shattered glass.
“Everybody out.”
No one argued.
Guests hurried toward the front doors.
Some avoided his eyes.
Others stared openly at Celia.
Celia pushed herself upright.
Blood touched the corner of her lip.
“You can’t throw me out of my own family’s house.”
Damian turned.
“This has never been your house.”
Her face tightened.
The two bodyguards groaned on the floor.
Damian’s longtime driver, Frank, entered from the foyer after hearing the crash.
Damian pointed to them.
“Call the police. And an ambulance.”
Celia gave a sharp laugh.
“For them?”
“For Lily.”
That shut her up.
Damian carried his granddaughter to a chair.
He knelt beside her.
“Did she hurt you anywhere else?”
Lily stared at Celia before answering.
That glance told him more than words could.
Damian lowered his voice.
“She cannot touch you now.”
Lily slowly pulled back one sleeve.
A faint bruise circled her wrist.
Damian closed his eyes.
For three seconds, the former boxer looked suddenly old.
Then Lily whispered, “She said I had to learn how to behave before the doctor came.”
Damian opened his eyes.
“What doctor?”
Celia moved fast.
“Dad, she’s confused.”
Damian stood.
“You’ve said enough.”
Frank carefully lifted a broken piece of the statue.
Inside the hollow base was a small black security unit.
Celia’s face went white.
Damian recognized it.
Eight years earlier, after an attempted burglary, his late wife Teresa had insisted that independent backup cameras be hidden throughout the main floor.
Most had later been disconnected during renovations.
He had forgotten this one existed.
Apparently, so had Celia.
Frank unplugged the unit.
“There’s a memory module.”
Celia lunged toward him.
Damian stepped between them.
“Don’t.”
She froze.
“It’s private family footage.”
Damian stared at her.
“You dragged my granddaughter across a ballroom on a chain in front of witnesses.”
“She was having another episode!”
Lily flinched.
Damian noticed.
Another episode.
The phrase sounded rehearsed.
Exactly like the language Celia had used in dozens of phone calls during the last six months.
Lily is difficult.
Lily lashes out.
Lily needs structure.
Lily might need professional care.
Damian had believed enough of it to feel guilty for not being home more.
Now he looked at Lily.
Quiet.
Terrified.
Five years old.
And something cold formed in his stomach.
“Frank,” he said.
“Yeah?”
“Take that camera unit to my study.”
Celia stepped forward.
“No.”
Damian looked at her.
And for the first time, she didn’t look arrogant.
She looked desperate.
“Dad. You need to listen to me before you watch anything.”
Damian’s jaw tightened.
“That sentence is the reason I’m definitely watching it.”
But as Frank carried the device away, Lily whispered something else.
Something Damian almost didn’t hear.
“Aunt Celia said the camera people were all gone.”
Damian crouched.
“What camera people?”
Lily pointed toward the bodyguards.
“The men who took the other cameras.”
Damian slowly looked toward the two injured men.
And Bodyguard One immediately looked away.
May you like
👉 Damian had walked into an act of cruelty—but he was beginning to understand that someone had prepared for it long before that night.
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