Chapter 1 - The Footage That Unmasked a Monster
The water in the infinity pool splashed violently as Victoria, drenched in her soaked $10,000 red velvet gown, sputtered for air. Her heavy gold stilettos dragged her down like anchors.
"Alexander!" she shrieked, gasping as she clawed at the polished marble edge of the pool. "Are you insane?! She attacked me! Look at my arm—she scratched me!"
Alexander didn't even turn around. He remained on his knees in the grand foyer, wrapping his tailored suit jacket gently around the trembling shoulders of Elena, the pregnant woman clutching her bleeding hand on the cold floor.
"Get the medical team to the mansion now," Alexander growled into his earpiece, his voice laced with venom. "And lock the gates. Nobody leaves."
"Alexander, listen to me!" Victoria scrambled out of the pool, her mascara running down her face in black trails. "You’re taking the word of a gold-digging maid over your own fiancée?! She stepped on my dress! She tried to push me!"
Alexander slowly stood up. He turned toward Victoria, his dark eyes colder than the winter sea.
"I didn't take her word, Victoria," he said softly, walking over to the glass wall panel that controlled the mansion’s integrated security grid. He tapped the screen. "I took yours."
He pressed PLAY on the last 180 seconds of the cloud backup feed, projecting the high-definition video directly onto the 120-inch living room display.
The speakers echoed with crystal-clear audio:
“You think that bastard inside you gives you a ticket into the Blackwood dynasty?” Victoria’s voice on screen was loud, malicious, and unmistakable. “Alexander will never love a gutter rat like you. I poisoned his mother three years ago, and I can make you disappear just as easily!”
The room froze.
Victoria’s breath caught in her throat. Her face drained of every drop of color. "No... that... that's edited! That's an AI voice!"
"Is it?" Alexander leaned in, his jaw clenched tight. "Because the audio frequency matches your voice pattern 100%. But that wasn't even the most interesting part of the video..."
Alexander paused the video at 01:42 seconds. He zoomed in on Victoria's hand right before she stomped on Elena.
Clutched tightly in Victoria’s left hand was a tiny glass vial with a silver syringe—the exact same unreleased nerve toxin that had killed Alexander’s mother in her sleep.
Victoria’s knees buckled.
"You didn't come here to insult her," Alexander whispered, his voice trembling with lethal fury. "You came here to end her pregnancy... and her life."
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Before Victoria could speak, the double doors burst open again. This time, it wasn't security.
It was six armed police officers led by Inspector Vance—accompanied by a woman standing in the shadow of the doorway. A woman whose face was identical to Elena's.
