A Little girl whispers “There’s a camera in your office ” Millionaire exposes spy fiancée…
Isla’s revelation hung in the air between them like smoke from a fire that had just begun to burn. Eli pushed back from his desk, his mind racing through implications and possibilities, while the eight-year-old girl who’d just potentially saved, his empire waited patiently for him to process what she’d told him. Show me, he said finally.
Show me everything you’ve seen. For the first time since she’d arrived at his house, Isla smiled. Not the polite, careful smile she wore around adults.
But a real one. Someone was finally listening. She retrieved her tablet from where she’d left it on the hallway table, her small fingers moving with surprising confidence across the screen.
Eli watched, fascinated despite his growing anxiety, as she navigated through apps he didn’t recognize. I learned this from watching you, she explained, pulling up a signal detection program. When you were working on the router configuration, last month, I downloaded it to see what was making my room feel… buzzy at night.
The tablet screen filled with a network map of their house. Eli recognized his own devices, computers, phones, smart home systems, security cameras. But there were others, unfamiliar signals that made his blood run cold.
There, Isla pointed to a cluster of red dots. These appeared after Sabrina started visiting more often. This big one is behind your painting.
This smaller one is in the living room, inside that crystal vase she brought you. And this one, she scrolled to show the master bedroom, is in your nightstand. Eli’s world tilted.
The woman he’d been falling in love with, the woman he’d been considering proposing to, had been systematically bugging his home. Every private conversation, every business call, every intimate moment, all of it recorded and transmitted to unknown receivers. How long have you known? He asked, surprised by how steady his voice remained.
Three weeks, Isla said quietly. I kept trying to tell you, but… She trailed off, but they both knew why she’d hesitated. He’d been too busy, too distracted by work and by Sabrina’s intoxicating presence to pay attention to anything an eight-year-old might have to say.
Tell me about Sabrina, he said. What have you seen her do? Isla’s expression grew serious. Taking on that watchful quality he now realized meant she was remembering everything with perfect clarity.
Children who’d been through the foster system learned to pay attention to details adults missed. Their survival had once depended on reading the signs correctly. She comes here when you’re not home sometimes, Isla began.
She has a key, but she always acts surprised when I see her, like she forgot I’d be here. She says she’s cleaning or organizing, but she never actually cleans anything. Eli’s hands clenched into fists.
He’d given Sabrina a key three months ago, a gesture that had felt romantic and significant at the time. She’d cried when he’d presented it to her, saying no one had ever trusted her like that before. She goes through your office, Isla continued, not just looking around but photographing things.
She has this tiny camera smaller than a phone. I saw her take pictures of papers on your desk and she always puts them back exactly where they were. What else? She asks me questions, Isla’s voice grew even quieter.
About your schedule, about when you work late, about your friends. She makes it seem like she’s just being nice, trying to get to know me better. But foster kids learn to recognize, when adults are fishing for information, The words hit Eli like physical blows, every casual conversation, every seemingly innocent question Sabrina had asked about his work, his business relationships, his daily routines.
It had all been intelligence gathering. And she’d been using Isla, an eight-year-old child who’d already been abandoned and betrayed by the adults, meant to protect her as an unwitting source. There’s something else, Isla said, her brown eyes meeting his directly.
I think someone else is helping her. What do you mean? Miles comes by sometimes when you’re traveling. He and Sabrina meet in your office…