Chapter 10 - The Shadow of the Past
Two weeks later.
The high-rise apartment on Riverside Drive sat completely empty. The police tape across the front door had been removed, but the space smelled of stale dust and cold marble. The shattered glass had been swept away, leaving behind an eerie, silent showroom that looked like a crime scene frozen in time.
Meilin stood in the center of the living room, accompanied by a court-appointed social worker and two armed private security guards hired by Arthur. She had one hour to pack her personal belongings and Lily’s clothes before the bank seized the property as part of Julian’s asset forfeiture proceedings.
She moved through the master bedroom, opening drawers and pulling out soft cotton baby clothes, silver photo frames, and her personal legal documents. Every object carried a memory—a trip to Paris where he had first raised his voice; an anniversary dinner where he had taken her passport away; a baby shower where he had monitored every conversation she had with her mother.
As she packed, her eyes caught something tucked behind the heavy oak nightstand next to Julian's side of the bed.
It was a small, sleek black recording device—a hidden camera, small as a button, wired directly into the wall outlet.
Meilin felt a chill run down her spine. She knelt down and pulled the tiny device free. It wasn't pointed at the room; it was pointed directly at her side of the bed, fitted with an infrared lens that could capture footage in complete darkness.
She realized then that Julian hadn't just monitored her phone or her computer. He had been recording every second of her life, tracking her sleep, her tears, her quiet moments of despair when she thought she was alone.
"Mrs. Thorne?" the social worker called out from the hallway. "Ten minutes left. The transport team is waiting downstairs."
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Meilin squeezed the tiny camera in her fist until the plastic edges bit into her skin. She didn't feel fear anymore. The terror that had governed her life for five years was mutating into something cold, hard, and unyielding.
She stood up, threw the recording device into her bag alongside her daughter's yellow dress, and walked out of the master bedroom without looking back.
