My Mob Boss Employer’s Fiancée Broke Her 14-Month-Old Step-Son’s Arm and Framed Me — But She Didn't Know About the Clock on the Mantle
Nonna Rosa’s visit injected a desperate hope into me, a fragile, new resolve. Dominic’s threat still loomed, but now I had an ally, an unexpected and powerful one.
We spent another hour discussing the clock camera. Nonna Rosa insisted that the footage was the key, the irrefutable evidence. She knew Dominic’s men would have swept the room thoroughly by now, but she believed it might still be there, overlooked in the chaos.
“The police won’t help me retrieve it,” I told her, recalling Alvarez’s cautious demeanor. “Not directly. They’d need a warrant, and Dominic would fight it.”
“Then we will find another way,” she declared, her eyes bright with a spark of old fire. “I have… influence.”
And she did. Early the next morning, I received a call from Detective Alvarez. His voice was guarded.
“Maya,” he said. “We have obtained a limited search warrant for the Moretti estate. Specifically, for any and all electronic recording devices in the nursery.”
My heart leaped. “How?”
“A credible tip from an unnamed source,” he responded, his tone indicating he wouldn’t elaborate further. “And the medical report. It’s enough to get us inside, but Mr. Moretti’s lawyers are already challenging it. We have a narrow window.”
He stressed the urgency. “You’ll be escorted by myself and two officers. You’re not to touch anything without my direct instruction. And we are looking for *any* device, not just a specific one.”
It was a tightrope walk. Alvarez couldn’t openly assist me in finding *my* specific clock camera without risking his case.
The Moretti mansion, usually bustling, was eerily quiet when we arrived. A few stone-faced guards stood at the entrance, their expressions grim. Enzo was nowhere in sight.
Dominic’s lawyers met us at the door, brandishing legal papers, protesting the warrant’s scope. Alvarez, however, remained unyielding, simply displaying the official document.
“We have a warrant,” he stated, his voice calm but firm. “Move aside.”
We went straight to the nursery. The room felt cold, stripped of its previous warmth. Leo’s toys were gone, the crib bedding replaced. The main wall camera, as expected, was still missing its cord, dangling uselessly.
“Okay, Maya,” Alvarez said, his voice low. “Point out anything you remember being here.”
I walked around the room, my eyes scanning every surface. The changing table, the rocking chair, the small bookshelf. It was all there, but subtly different, cleaner, almost sterile.
“The clock,” I breathed, my gaze falling on the antique wooden bedside table next to where the crib used to be. “There was a clock here.”
Alvarez nodded to one of the officers. “Look for a digital clock, a bedside alarm clock.”
The officer found it almost immediately, tucked behind a stack of children’s books that had been placed on the table. It was an old-fashioned digital alarm clock, made of dark polished wood, with a small LED display.
My heart pounded. This was it.
The officer picked it up carefully. “Found it, Detective.”
Alvarez took it from him, examining it closely. He checked the front, the sides. Then he turned it over.
His brow furrowed. “Maya,” he asked, his voice tight. “Did this clock always have a loose back panel?”
My blood ran cold. I knew the clock intimately. I had set it up myself.
“No,” I whispered, my voice trembling. “It was solid. All one piece.”
Alvarez carefully touched the back of the clock. A faint, almost invisible seam outlined where the small wooden panel had been. It was crudely pried open. The tiny slot for the micro-SD card was empty.
My breath hitched. The card was gone.
“It’s missing,” I said, the words feeling like ash in my mouth. “The micro-SD card. It’s not there.”
Alvarez sighed, a heavy, disappointed sound. “Well, that complicates things. This clock appears to have been tampered with. And the card, if it ever existed, is no longer present.”
The officers exchanged glances, their faces grim. My last shred of hope, the physical evidence that could prove everything, was gone.
Dominic’s men hadn’t overlooked it. They had found it. And they had destroyed it.
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