Chapter 2 - What Was Beneath the Mattress
Marco moved faster than anyone else in the room.
“West gate locked,” he ordered into his radio. “East gate too. Nobody enters or exits without direct authorization from me or Mr. Moretti.”
Responses crackled through the speaker.
I barely heard them.
My attention remained on Theo.
The moment I stopped touching his mattress, his screaming weakened.
That told me enough.
“Take the children out.”
One nanny approached.
“No.”
The word left my mouth so sharply that she stopped.
I pointed at Elena.
“You.”
Elena looked startled.
“Sir?”
“Take them.”
It was not a decision based on logic.
It was instinct.
Every professional in that nursery had failed to understand what was happening.
A four-year-old had figured it out.
And Elena was the mother of that four-year-old.
That mattered to me.
She lifted Nora first.
Sophie stood and moved beside her.
Another nanny took Miles while Elena carried Theo after Marco carefully removed the device.
“Where?” Elena asked.
“My bedroom.”
Everyone stared at me.
“My room has no exterior service access and only one entrance. Marco will put guards outside.”
Elena nodded.
For perhaps the first time since the screaming had begun, I saw relief in her face.
“Go.”
She disappeared with the children.
Sophie started to follow.
Then she stopped beside me.
“Mr. Adrien?”
I looked down.
Children rarely called me anything at all. Most avoided me.
“What?”
“The bad sound hurts them.”
My jaw tightened.
“I know.”
Her little brow creased.
“You didn’t know before.”
It was not an accusation.
That made it worse.
“No,” I said. “I didn’t.”
Sophie looked toward the cribs.
“They tried to tell everybody.”
I swallowed something bitter.
“Yes.”
Then she ran after her mother.
Marco waited until the door closed.
“Clear the nursery,” he ordered.
Doctors and staff were escorted away individually.
When only Marco, two trusted guards, and I remained, he put on gloves.
He removed the device beneath Theo’s mattress.
It was barely larger than a coin.
Black casing.
Tiny speaker grille.
No obvious brand.
No serial number.
Marco placed it inside an evidence bag.
“Search the other cribs.”
We found another beneath Miles’s mattress.
Then another beneath Nora’s.
Three children.
Three devices.
That eliminated coincidence.
Marco stared at them on the changing table.
“What do you think they are?” I asked.
“I need Luca.”
Luca Santoro handled electronics for my organization.
“Bring him.”
“He’s forty minutes away.”
“Then tell him he has twenty.”
Marco almost smiled.
Almost.
While we waited, the nursery was photographed inch by inch.
Nothing was moved unless documented first.
The devices had been attached with thin industrial tape beneath the mattresses.
Whoever installed them knew exactly where to put them.
Hidden from adults.
Close to the babies.
I stood near Nora’s crib.
A stuffed rabbit rested against the pillow.
I remembered buying it at an airport six months earlier.
I had been returning from Chicago.
I saw it in a gift shop and suddenly realized I had been gone four days and had nothing for my daughter.
Men like me remembered shipments.
Debts.
Routes.
Names.
Enemies.
I sometimes forgot stuffed rabbits.
That thought sickened me now.
I had spent my life building walls around my family.
Apparently someone had walked straight through them.
Luca arrived nineteen minutes later.
Sweat darkened the collar of his jacket.
He looked at the evidence bags.
“Tell me you didn’t touch these bare-handed.”
“We didn’t.”
He pulled equipment from a case.
“What happened?”
Marco told him.
Luca looked at me once.
Then wisely returned his attention to the devices.
He worked for nearly ten minutes without speaking.
I hated silence when I wanted answers.
Finally, he leaned back.
“These aren’t ordinary listening bugs.”
“What are they?”
“Modified acoustic emitters.”
Marco frowned.
“In English.”
“They create sound.”
“We heard a click.”
“The click is probably mechanical activation. The actual output could be above the range most adults notice.”
I stared at him.
“You mean ultrasound?”
“Possibly. Or high-frequency pulses. Babies and young children can perceive frequencies adults often can’t.”
My hands curled into fists.
“So someone put machines beneath my children that made sounds designed to hurt them?”
“I didn’t say hurt.”
I stepped closer.
Luca corrected himself immediately.
“Distress. Irritate. Frighten. Possibly cause headaches or disorientation. I need laboratory equipment to know exactly what frequency they produce.”
“Can it damage them?”
His hesitation felt like a knife.
“I don’t know.”
Marco turned toward him.
“Find out.”
Luca nodded.
Then he examined the object from Sophie’s doll.
“This one is different.”
“How?”
“It has the same speaker component, but there’s also a receiver.”
“For what?”
“Remote activation.”
Marco and I exchanged a look.
“Meaning?” I asked.
“Someone could trigger it from somewhere else.”
“Inside the house?”
“Or nearby.”
“How nearby?”
“Depends on the transmitter.”
Before he finished, one of Marco’s men entered.
“Sir.”
“What?”
“We checked the nursery camera system.”
“And?”
“There’s a problem.”
Of course there was.
“What problem?”
“The recording has a gap.”
Marco’s expression hardened.
“How long?”
“Eleven minutes.”
“When?”
The guard checked his tablet.
“Between 2:14 and 2:25 this afternoon.”
Elena had said she found the doll that afternoon.
I felt the pieces moving.
“Who was upstairs?”
“We’re pulling staff logs.”
“Pull everything.”
The guard started to leave.
“Wait.”
He turned.
“Who has access to the nursery?”
“Family, nannies, cleaning staff assigned to this floor, medical personnel when scheduled, Mr. Bellini’s security team.”
“And?”
He hesitated.
“Senior household employees.”
“How many people total?”
“Twenty-three.”
Twenty-three possible betrayals.
Marco took the tablet.
“Find everyone who entered this wing today.”
The guard left.
Luca suddenly raised his hand.
“Quiet.”
We became silent.
He had headphones pressed against one ear.
A cable connected them to the device from the doll.
“What?”
He didn’t respond.
“Luca.”
His face changed.
“It just received something.”
Marco moved beside him.
“What?”
“A signal.”
“From where?”
“I can’t tell from one receiver.”
“Can you trace it?”
“If it happens again.”
The room seemed colder.
“Was the device activated?” I asked.
“No. Just pinged. Like something checking whether it’s still online.”
Marco looked toward the windows.
“You’re saying whoever planted this may be testing it right now?”
“Yes.”
I went to the window.
Gardens stretched beyond the glass.
Fountains.
Trees.
Stone walls.
Armed guards.
Luxury had always made the estate look untouchable.
Now every bush looked like cover.
Every window looked like an entry point.
Every employee looked like someone capable of betraying me.
Marco spoke quietly.
“If they pinged it after the estate locked down, they might not know we found it.”
“Good.”
He looked at me.
I understood his thought before he said it.
“Don’t disconnect the receiver.”
Luca stared at us.
“That’s risky.”
“So is having an enemy close enough to attack my children.”
Marco nodded.
“We let them think the device is still functioning.”
Luca swallowed.
“And when they send another signal?”
“We follow it.”
A scream suddenly echoed from the hallway.
I moved before anyone else.
I reached my bedroom in seconds.
Two guards stood outside.
Elena was inside holding Nora.
Miles was crying.
Theo was pointing toward the floor.
“What happened?”
Elena looked terrified.
“Sophie heard something.”
I turned.
Sophie was kneeling beside my bed.
Her ear was almost against the carpet.
“Sophie.”
She looked up.
“There.”
She pointed beneath the enormous wooden frame.
Marco arrived behind me.
He drew his weapon.
I lifted the mattress platform.
Nothing.
Then Marco lowered himself to one knee.
His flashlight swept beneath the bed.
He stopped.
Slowly, he reached underneath.
When his hand returned, he was holding a tiny black box.
Not like the nursery devices.
Larger.
With a blinking green light.
Luca entered and went pale.
“What is it?” I asked.
He stared at the box.
“A relay.”
“For the emitters?”
“For everything.”
He looked around my bedroom.
“This is what’s receiving the signal from outside and distributing it through the house.”
The blinking light changed.
Green.
Green.
Then red.
Luca’s eyes widened.
“Someone just connected to it.”
Marco grabbed his radio.
“Trace it.”
Luca opened his laptop.
His fingers flew across the keys.
Numbers appeared.
Then a map.
A dot.
Inside my property.
Marco leaned closer.
“That can’t be right.”
I looked at him.
“Where?”
Luca turned the screen toward me.
The signal was not coming from outside the estate.
It was coming from the servants’ wing.
Someone had not merely entered my home.
May you like
Someone had been operating the devices from inside it.
And according to the signal on Luca’s screen, they were doing it right now.
