Chapter 16: The Hidden Camera

Elena didn't give her the necklace. She didn't trust Beatrice. But the encounter had shifted something in the atmosphere of the house. The silence wasn't empty anymore; it was populated by ghosts and allies of convenience.

She retreated to the library, the only room where the Wi-Fi signal occasionally flickered to life. She needed to know what Vane knew. She needed to know how deep the surveillance went.

She scanned the bookshelves. Leather-bound classics. First editions. Constance’s collection of medical journals from her time on the hospital board.

Elena pulled out a heavy volume of *Gray’s Anatomy*, intending to use it as a prop while she checked her phone. But as she slid the book from the shelf, she noticed something behind it.

A small, black lens, no bigger than a pinhead, mounted in the eye of a taxidermied stag head on the wall.

It was staring directly at the desk where she did the estate accounts.

Elena froze. She didn't look at it. She pretended to read the spine of the book, her heart thudding against her ribs.

It wasn't just a jammer. It was visual monitoring.

She moved casually, replacing the book. She walked around the room, feigning boredom. She checked the other corners.

Another lens in the cornice molding. Another in the smoke detector.

He was watching her right now.

Panic, cold and sharp, flooded her system. How long? Since the funeral? Since she started asking questions? Or had Vane been watching the house for forty years?

She needed to disable them. But if she did, he would know. A blank screen was as good as a confession.

She walked to the window. The black sedan was gone from the driveway, but she knew it was close.

She needed to find the hub. The place where the feeds were recorded.

The basement.

She remembered the server rack next to the wine cellar. She had assumed it was for the house’s smart systems—lighting, temperature. But a smart house didn't need a rack that size.

She left the library, moving quickly but not running. She went down the back stairs. The kitchen was empty.

She opened the basement door. The hum of the servers grew louder as she descended.

The rack was locked behind a wire mesh cage. Blue lights blinked in the darkness.

Elena looked for the router. It was a black box, humming with heat.

She didn't have the key to the cage. But the mesh was old. She grabbed the wire and pulled. It gave a little.

She needed a tool.

She looked around the workbench. A screwdriver.

She jammed the screwdriver into the lock mechanism. She twisted. Metal screeched.

The lock popped.

She opened the cage. The heat from the servers washed over her.

She looked at the labels on the hard drives. *EXT-1. INT-LIB. INT-KIT.*

External. Interior Library. Interior Kitchen.

He had everything. Every conversation. Every meal. Every secret whispered in the dark.

She reached for the power cord. She was going to pull it. She was going to blind him.

But then she saw the red light on the router.

It wasn't just recording. It was transmitting.

A steady, rhythmic pulse. Uploading data to a remote server.

She followed the cable. It ran up the wall, through the ceiling, and into...

A small, black box mounted in the corner.

A camera. Pointed directly at the server rack.

She wasn't discovering the surveillance. She was starring in it.

The red light blinked. Once. Twice.

Someone was watching her right now.