Chapter 4

Aurelia’s POV

Slowly, I turned around to see Callum standing in the doorway, the hidden phone still in my hand.

For one terrifying second, neither of us spoke, then his gaze dropped to the device.

“What are you doing here?” His voice was calm.

I forced myself to smile, “I couldn’t sleep.”

His eyes narrowed, “And that led you to my office?”

I laughed nervously, “I was looking for painkillers.”

The lie sounded ridiculous even to me. Callum clearly didn’t believe a word of it, his gaze remained fixed on the phone.

My pulse hammered. If he asked me to unlock it, I was finished. Fortunately, he walked forward and held out his hand.

“Give it to me.”

I hesitated then I handed it over.

“What phone is that?” I asked casually.

“Work phone,” his answer came immediately.

“Who texted you?”

His expression hardened, “Aurelia.”

“What?”

“It’s work. Mind your damn business.”

His tone left no room for discussion.

I swallowed my frustration.

“Okay.”

For a moment, neither of us spoke, then he slipped the phone into his pocket.

“Go to bed.”

I stared at him.

Callum would’ve kissed my forehead, asked why I couldn’t sleep, and even carried me upstairs to tuck me in. But he walked past me and headed toward the desk.

—

The next morning, I met Marco at one of the family’s private security offices.

He looked surprised to see me.

“Mrs. Arden.”

“I need a favor.”

His expression immediately became cautious.

“What kind of favor?”

“The security footage from the docks.”

Marco blinked, “The footage?”

“Yes.”

“Give me a few minutes.”

Twenty minutes later, I was sitting in front of a computer screen.

The footage played and everything appeared exactly as I remembered yet something felt wrong.

I replayed it and watched it again.

“See? Just like the official report,” Marco said, watching from behind me.

“No,” I said, my fingers freezing above the keyboard, “This footage was edited.”

His eyes widened, “What?”

I pointed toward the screen, “The timestamps don’t match.”

Marco frowned, “What do you mean?”

“Three seconds disappeared here,” I highlighted a section, “And another two seconds here.”

His expression shifted and I kept watching. The more I analyzed the footage, the more problems I found.

Missing frames, corrupted metadata, timestamp inconsistencies. Someone had altered this recording deliberately.

Marco looked stunned, “Can you prove it?”

I smiled grimly, “I used to do this for a living.”

Before becoming Aurelia Arden, I had been one of the best hackers in the country.

“I’ll take this and look at it at home,” I said to him.

—

Hours later, I sat alone in my home office. My laptop displayed lines of code, and coffee cups covered the desk.

The security footage remained open on one monitor. I followed the digital trail left behind by whoever modified the file.

Most people would’ve missed it but I didn’t. Every edit leaves fingerprints, you just have to know where to look.

Eventually, I found what I was searching for, it was a phone number.

My heartbeat quickened. The number had remotely accessed the security system and uploaded the modified footage.

I immediately began tracing it and a few seconds later, the result appeared.

I froze.

That wasn’t possible, the signal belonged to a private device. One registered inside Arden Manor. More specifically registered to Callum’s office.

My stomach dropped. It was the hidden phone, the same phone I’d found last night.

My hands began to shake. Slowly, I opened another program. If the phone had modified the footage, then maybe it still contained the original files.

Ten minutes later, I broke through the security and the phone’s data appeared on my screen.

I opened the video folder and my mouth went dry. The attack unfolded again and this time the video shifted.

I saw Callum, but he wasn't fighting. He was unconscious and he was being dragged across the docks by two men into a van.

My heart stopped. Callum had been kidnapped exactly at the timestamp that was erased.

The video went dark and six hours later it showed another footage of Callum being dropped off on the docks, dressed in the same clothes, without a scratch.

I sat frozen.

Every hair on my body stood on end because what I had just seen was impossible.

The man who entered that van never should have walked out looking unscratched.

Slowly, I leaned back in my chair as my mind raced.

Callum had been kidnapped, the footage proved it but why didn't he tell anyone? And how did he return without a scratch?

A floorboard creaked behind me just as a voice shattered the silence.

“Why won’t you just let things be?”