Chapter 3 - My Birthday Had a Camera Plan
Nathan arrived the next morning.
Unlike Michael and James, he did not ask me to retell the assault.
He asked:
“Who was filming?”
I frowned.
“Everyone.”
“No.”
He sat beside my hospital bed.
“Who had fixed cameras?”
The mansion had a professional security system.
Hallways.
Entrances.
Exterior.
Ballroom.
Or so I thought.
Police learned something strange.
The ballroom cameras had gone offline at 7:12 p.m.
My assault began around 8:06.
The hallway cameras continued recording.
So did exterior cameras.
Only the ballroom feed disappeared.
Robert blamed a network problem.
Nathan did not.
“Convenient network problem.”
Michael warned:
“Don’t jump ahead.”
“I’m not.”
Nathan opened his notebook.
“Who recorded on phones?”
Vanessa had livestreamed portions of the party earlier.
Ethan had hired a videographer.
Several guests had phones.
Then Tasha told police something important.
Before the wine spill, Vanessa asked the videographer:
“Make sure you’re on Emily if anything happens.”
Anything.
Not:
When we cut the cake.
Not:
When she opens the gift.
Anything.
The videographer later admitted Ethan had instructed him to record continuously after dinner.
But after the confrontation started, Robert’s assistant ordered him to stop.
“Why?”
“She said it was becoming private family business.”
Yet Vanessa kept her own phone running.
Her video started seconds after the wine spill.
It captured me pushing her hand away after she slapped me.
It did not capture Vanessa stepping into me first.
That clip reached several guests within hours.
The framing was perfect.
Emily loses her temper.
Emily pushes Vanessa.
Ethan intervenes.
The later tying and beating could then be described by the Carters as a grotesque “disciplinary joke” that escalated after my aggression.
Ugly.
Still indefensible.
But useful if someone needed to muddy the story.
Nathan said:
“They wanted a reaction.”
I stared at him.
“To what?”
“Maybe just Vanessa.”
“Why?”
“That's what we need to find out.”
Then Ryan arrived carrying a laptop.
He looked terrible.
“I found the company.”
“What company?”
He turned the screen.
LAKEVIEW PROJECT CONTROLS LLC.
One of the entities from Ethan’s tablet.
Payments into it from Carter Construction totaled approximately $8.4 million over eighteen months.
May you like
The company’s registered manager:
Vanessa Blake.
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