The monitor went black for half a second.

Alessandro froze.

Then the image returned.

The nursery door was completely shut.

“Mia?”

His voice came through the office before he realized he had spoken aloud.

He grabbed his phone.

“East wing. Now.”

His men were already moving.

Alessandro watched the screen.

Mia stood perfectly still beside Sophia’s crib.

The little girl wasn’t looking at the door anymore.

She was staring at the corner.

The same empty corner.

Her lips moved.

Alessandro increased the brightness.

Mia whispered something.

He couldn’t hear it.

The camera had no audio.

He leaned closer to the monitor.

Then Mia slowly raised one finger and pointed toward the corner.

She wasn’t pointing at a shadow.

She wasn’t pointing at a toy.

She was pointing at the wall.

Alessandro’s expression hardened.

The nursery had been inspected before Sophia was born.

Every wall.

Every vent.

Every piece of furniture.

Nothing had been hidden.

Nothing.

His phone vibrated.

EAST WING — ARRIVED.

He immediately called.

“Open the nursery.”

A man’s voice answered.

“We’re outside.”

“Then open it.”

There was a pause.

“Sir…”

“What?”

“The door is locked.”

Alessandro looked at the monitor.

Mia had moved.

She was standing directly beside the crib now, holding the stuffed rabbit against Sophia’s chest.

Then she looked straight toward the camera.

Straight at him.

Alessandro stopped breathing.

The little girl lifted her finger to her lips.

Shh.

His blood ran cold.

She knew.

She knew there was a camera.

She knew he was watching.

Then Mia turned toward the wall again.

She reached down and picked up something from the floor.

A small object.

Metallic.

She held it beneath the nursery light.

Alessandro stared.

It was a key.

A key he recognized immediately.

It belonged to a room that had been locked for eleven months.

A room no one in the house was supposed to enter.

His late wife Isabella’s private room.

The same room Alessandro had sealed after her death.

His phone slipped slightly in his hand.

On the monitor, Mia looked down at the key.

Then she whispered something silently.

Alessandro couldn’t hear the words.

But he knew what she was saying.

“She told me where to find it.”

And at that exact moment, Sophia opened her eyes.

She looked toward the dark corner.

Then smiled.

As if someone standing there had just smiled back.