Seven Missing Minutes
Chapter 03 - Seven Missing Minutes
By sunrise, the estate had become a quiet fortress. No one entered or left without being searched, and Adrian’s technology team examined every camera, server, and access log. The results made the mystery worse.
The front-hall camera had not malfunctioned. Someone with administrator privileges had deleted seven minutes and then run a program designed to damage the remaining file. Only three people had that level of access: Adrian, Daniel, and Marcus Wynn, Cole Meridian’s chief financial officer.
Marcus claimed he had not visited the estate in weeks. Daniel insisted his credentials must have been copied. Adrian trusted both men, but Olivia no longer knew whom trust protected.
Her missing foundation folder had also vanished from the cloud. Even the backup emails were gone. Whoever erased the footage had reached into her private files as well.
Adrian sat beside her bed, his tie loosened and his phone ignored for once. “I should have taken your concerns about Vanessa more seriously,” he said. “I thought she was bitter about losing influence. I didn’t believe she would come near you.”
Olivia looked at him carefully. “Did you know she was moving foundation money?”
His expression changed. He had not known.
She explained the repeated transfers: $400,000 every month to Harbor Light Maternal Care, a charity with a beautiful website but no public clinics, no audited reports, and no patients Olivia could verify. The payments had been approved electronically by Marcus and supported by Vanessa, who chaired the foundation’s finance committee.
Adrian immediately called the company’s outside counsel. Before the lawyer could arrive, news of the incident leaked online.
A gossip account posted that “a domestic dispute” had occurred at the Cole estate. Anonymous sources claimed Olivia had attacked a guest during a pregnancy-related emotional crisis. Within an hour, reporters gathered beyond the gates.
Vanessa gave no formal interview, but she released a statement asking the public to “show compassion to everyone involved.” Her false concern made the accusation spread faster.
Olivia watched strangers debate her stability as if she were a character in a show. Adrian switched off the television, but she turned it back on.
“No,” she said. “I need to see what she’s doing.”
A shaky video appeared on the screen. It showed Olivia confronting Vanessa in the hall, raising one hand, and stepping forward. Then the image jumped to Olivia on the floor. The attack itself was missing.
The clip had no sound, but it was enough to make Vanessa look innocent.
Adrian stared at the time stamp. “That angle came from inside the house.”
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Someone on his staff had not only erased the truth.
They had edited a new one.
