Chapter 2 - The Woman Behind the Locked Door
The person standing outside my office was not supposed to be there.
Victoria.
She stood beneath the warm hallway lights wearing a black evening dress, her blonde hair perfectly arranged, one hand resting casually against the doorframe.
She looked calm.
Too calm.
For one second, neither of us spoke.
Then she smiled.
“Adrian,” she said softly. “Why are you looking at me like that?”
I stared at the woman I planned to marry.
The woman who had shared my bed.
The woman who knew every weakness I tried to hide.
And now she was standing outside my locked office while a hidden camera blinked behind my painting.
“I could ask you the same question,” I replied.
Her smile remained.
But her eyes changed.
Only slightly.
Most people would have missed it.
I didn’t.
Fear.
A tiny flash of fear.
Then it disappeared.
“I was looking for you,” she said. “You disappeared after dinner.”
“I was in my office.”
“I know.”
The answer came too quickly.
My fingers tightened around the edge of the door.
“You know?”
Victoria looked at me.
Then at Lily.
The moment her eyes landed on the little girl, something shifted.
Not anger.
Not surprise.
Something worse.
Recognition.
Lily immediately stepped behind me.
That small movement told me everything.
She was afraid of Victoria.
Not because Victoria was loud.
Not because she had threatened her.
Because Lily had already seen something.
Something that made a child hide behind a man she barely knew.
“Lily,” Victoria said, forcing a gentle voice. “What are you doing here?”
The little girl said nothing.
Victoria took one step forward.
I moved between them.
“Stay where you are.”
Her expression froze.
“Adrian?”
“You heard me.”
A long silence filled the hallway.
For years, people had feared me because I was unpredictable.
But Victoria knew me.
She knew I only became quiet when I was dangerous.
“What is going on?” she asked.
I looked back at the office.
At the hidden device.
At the wall where someone had been watching me.
Then I looked at her.
“That’s what I’m trying to find out.”
Her face softened.
“Are you accusing me?”
“I’m asking questions.”
“No.”
Her voice became colder.
“You’re doing more than that.”
I didn’t answer.
Because she was right.
I was.
I walked back into the office and grabbed the hidden device.
The tiny red light continued blinking.
Victoria followed me with her eyes.
“You found that behind the painting?”
I stopped.
Slowly, I turned around.
“How did you know it was behind the painting?”
Silence.
A dangerous silence.
Her lips parted.
“I assumed.”
“You assumed?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
She looked away for half a second.
That was enough.
I had spent my life reading people.
And Victoria had just given me the first crack.
“There are cameras all over this house,” she said. “Maybe someone installed it because they were worried about security.”
“Someone?”
“Yes.”
“Who?”
She didn’t answer.
I stepped closer.
“Victoria.”
Her expression changed.
The perfect woman disappeared for a moment.
The woman underneath looked tired.
Almost desperate.
“You don’t understand what you’re dealing with.”
Those words made the room colder.
“Then explain it.”
She looked at Lily.
Not me.
The child.
“You shouldn’t have brought her here.”
My eyes narrowed.
“I didn’t bring her.”
Victoria looked confused.
Then afraid.
“She came here by herself?”
“Yes.”
The color slowly disappeared from her face.
That reaction bothered me more than anything else.
Because Victoria wasn’t surprised that Lily entered my office.
She was surprised that Lily was still alive.
I noticed.
And she noticed that I noticed.
The game had changed.
“Where is Maria?” I asked.
Victoria looked down.
“I don’t know.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
“I’m telling the truth.”
“Then why did Lily say her mother tried to warn me?”
Victoria’s jaw tightened.
“Because Maria was scared.”
“Of what?”
She didn’t answer.
I walked toward my desk and opened the drawer where I kept emergency documents.
The drawer was locked.
I entered the code.
Nothing happened.
I tried again.
Still nothing.
My code had been changed.
Someone had accessed my desk.
Someone had entered my private office.
Someone had altered my security.
I looked at Victoria.
She looked back at me.
Neither of us needed to say it.
Someone close to me had done this.
My phone vibrated.
A message appeared.
Unknown number.
I opened it.
One photo.
My blood went cold.
It was a picture of Maria.
She was sitting in a dark room.
Her hands were tied.
Below the image was one sentence.
“Stop searching.”
Lily saw the picture.
She gasped.
“Mama.”
I immediately locked the phone screen.
Too late.
The damage was done.
Victoria saw it.
Her face changed.
“You received that?”
I stared at her.
“How do you know it was a message?”
She froze.
I slowly lowered my phone.
“You didn’t see my screen.”
Another mistake.
Another crack.
Victoria stepped back.
“Adrian, listen to me.”
“No.”
My voice was calm.
And that scared her.
“Now you listen to me.”
The room became silent.
I had faced armed men.
I had survived betrayals.
I had walked away from situations where others never made it home.
But this was different.
Because the person standing in front of me was someone I had invited into my life.
Someone I trusted.
Someone who knew exactly where to hurt me.
“Tell me everything,” I said.
Victoria looked at Lily.
Then back at me.
“I can’t.”
The answer shocked me.
Not because she refused.
Because she looked like she was protecting me.
“Can’t?”
“If I tell you, they’ll know.”
“Who?”
Her eyes moved toward the hidden camera.
Then toward the hallway.
Then toward the ceiling.
Everywhere.
Like she believed we were being watched.
“We are already too late.”
Before I could respond, every light in the office turned off.
Darkness swallowed the room.
Lily screamed softly.
I immediately reached for her.
My security instincts took over.
I pulled her behind me.
The emergency lights should have activated.
They didn’t.
Someone had disabled them.
Then I heard it.
A sound from inside the office.
A quiet movement.
Not from the door.
Not from the window.
From behind the wall.
The painting.
I grabbed the flashlight from my desk and aimed it toward the hidden compartment.
The red light behind the canvas had stopped blinking.
Now it was steady.
A signal.
A warning.
Victoria whispered my name.
“Adrian…”
I looked at her.
For the first time that night, she looked truly terrified.
Not pretending.
Not hiding.
Terrified.
May you like
Then the hidden panel behind the painting slowly opened by itself.
And a phone inside began ringing.
