Chapter 3 - The Audit TrailMarco returned carrying a heavy leather binder and a high-resolution digital tablet. He didn't look at Vivienne; he walked straight to me and laid the tablet on the mahogany table.
"The physical key-card system for the staff quarters cannot be deleted, even by the main network administrator," Marco said, tapping the screen. "Every employee and resident has a unique RFID chip. Let's look at October 30th—the night Sofia Carter passed away."
He scrolled down the log and stopped at a highlighted entry.
02:14 AM – Door Access: Staff Wing, Sector 4 (Sofia Carter’s room).
Credential ID: Master-Admin-02.
Holder: Vivienne Vance (Registered Fianceé / Executive Trustee).
The dining room went dead silent. Even the storm outside seemed to pause.
I slowly turned my head to look at Vivienne. She was staring at the tablet screen, her fingers digging into the edge of the mahogany table until her knuckles turned white.
"Master Admin Two," I repeated, the words tasting like ash in my mouth. "That’s the override key. The one I gave you last month so you could inspect the estate renovations while I was in Geneva."
"It’s a glitch," Vivienne said, her voice rising in panic, losing its cool veneer entirely. "The system is old! Anyone could have cloned my credential! Damian, you know how many hackers are targeting estates like yours—"
"The biometric confirmation requires both the RFID card and your registered thumbprint on the interior lock panel," Marco interrupted coldly. "There was no clone. The biometric log matches your right index finger, timestamped at 2:14 AM."
I stepped closer to her, towering over her chair.
"Why were you in Sofia’s room at two in the morning, nineteen days ago?"
Vivienne suddenly stopped shaking. Her breathing slowed. The panic vanished, replaced by a cold, hardened stare that I had never seen in the two years we had been together.
May you like
She lifted her chin, adjusted her sapphire gown with terrifying composure, and looked me dead in the eye.
"Because she found something in your private safe, Damian," Vivienne said smoothly. "And if I hadn't taken it back, you wouldn't just be planning an engagement party right now. You’d be planning your own funeral."
