The Device That Was Supposed to Be Dead
Chapter 02 - The Device That Was Supposed to Be Dead
Nathan locked the kitchen door before answering the front entrance.
He told Rachel to wash her face, cover her hand, and smile.
Vivienne found a linen napkin, wrapped it around Rachel’s fingers, and tied the knot so tightly that Rachel nearly cried out again.
“If anyone asks,” Vivienne said, “you touched the pan by accident.”
Rachel stared at her.
Vivienne’s face held no cruelty dramatic enough for a courtroom. Only impatience.
“That is what happened,” she continued. “You were careless.”
Nathan crouched near the cabinet and reached beneath it. He pulled out the black cube.
The blue light had stopped.
He removed the battery panel.
It was empty.
Rachel saw it too.
The device had no battery, yet it had blinked.
Nathan’s hand tightened around it.
“Who reconnected this?”
Vivienne whispered, “Your father.”
“My father has been dead for nine months.”
Their eyes met.
Something passed between them—fear older than the dinner.
The doorbell rang again.
Graham Sterling’s birthday celebration had been arranged after his death because Vivienne insisted the family continue his traditions. Board members, relatives, and company executives arrived annually to toast the founder and discuss the future of Sterling Domestic Technologies.
Rachel had always thought the ritual sentimental.
Now it felt like a board meeting disguised as grief.
Nathan shoved the device into a drawer.
“Go upstairs,” he told Rachel.
“No.”
He stepped toward her.
She raised her uninjured hand.
“People are at the door.”
The reminder stopped him.
Nathan could hurt her in private. Public witnesses changed the rules.
Rachel entered the dining room wearing a clean cardigan over her teal dress. She kept her right hand beneath the table. When Nathan’s sister, Laura, asked why she looked pale, Rachel blamed the heat of the kitchen.
Nathan sat beside her and rested one hand on her knee.
The gesture looked affectionate.
His fingers pressed hard enough to warn her.
During dinner, Vivienne gave a speech about family loyalty. She praised Nathan for protecting his father’s legacy and announced that the board would vote the following morning on a merger with Halcyon Security.
The deal would make Sterling the largest residential surveillance company in the country.
Rachel looked toward the kitchen.
A company selling security had nearly erased the only device capable of proving what happened inside its founder’s home.
Her phone vibrated beneath the table.
The message came from an unknown number.
BLUE UNIT 7 IS LIVE.
A second message followed.
DO NOT LET THEM DESTROY IT. GRAHAM LEFT THE ACCESS KEY WITH YOU.
Rachel read the words twice.
She had no access key.
Then she remembered the small brass charm Graham gave her three days before his death.
It hung inside the locket around her neck.
Nathan’s hand moved from her knee to the chain.
“What are you reading?”
Rachel locked the phone.
“A birthday message.”
May you like
Nathan smiled for the guests.
Under the table, his grip tightened around the locket.
