Chapter 121: Footage

I plan to visit the Vassaris. I might get more information from their footage."

Silence.

Rauf waited. He expected some kind of reaction from June, but all she did was stare at him.

Confused, Rauf repeated himself. "I will be going to the Vassaris to get the footage and check if there is anything I can get from it."

June nodded. "Okay."

Rauf narrowed his gaze at her. "Hmm."

If she was angry, he would have understood, but this silence was heavier than he expected. Having nothing to hold against her or prove that she was going to do anything dangerous, he had to let it go.

"Okay, fine, but I want you to stay at home and don’t do anything dangerous."

June shifted in her chair. "Okay, I heard you the first time."

Before Rauf could say another word, she stood up from her chair and left the office, taking her book and phone with her.

If he really thought she was going to do as he said, just stay in and allow everyone to settle things for her, then he must be joking.

June moved to her room and locked the door behind her. She brought out the book My Info and her phone, but this time, she didn’t waste time searching for Dante and focused on his grandfather.

If this feud was as old as Rauf said, then she needed to get to the root of it.

She started searching for information about Dante’s father and grandfather, but unfortunately, nothing important came up.

June frowned at the phone.

The old man was practically a ghost. She couldn’t find much about him, but she wasn’t the kind of person to give up that easily.

She continued going further into the past.

Suddenly, she came across a picture.

There were three people in it.

A young man, a boy she assumed was Dante, and an older man standing beside them.

June stared at the picture.

She could recognize Dante from the glare he sent toward the camera, even though he was much younger.

The young man beside him had similar features.

His father?

Which meant the older man could be his grandfather.

June sat upright.

This was the only picture she had seen of Dante’s grandfather, and she wasn’t going to let it go until she got something from it.

Meanwhile, Rauf had arrived at the Vassari mansion.

At that moment, he was thankful that he couldn’t see Amie anywhere and settled with Chris and Serena.

They were seated in Chris’s office because Serena didn’t need to pretend she was blind in Rauf’s presence.

Rauf soon gave them all the information he had gotten.

Serena smirked when he told her it was June who had discovered Dante’s right-hand man at the party. He gave her a summary of what June had been up to.

"She is just like me," Serena said, her smile widening.

It was the sort of smile Chris hadn’t seen on her face for a long time, and at that moment, he wished they could be done with this whole fake-heiress deal and finally be united as a family.

But Rauf wasn’t ready to waste his time.

He went straight to the point.

"So, did you know the Monterrio guys were at the party?"

"Of course I knew," Serena responded.

"Then why? Why did you allow them to stay?"

Serena’s smile disappeared.

"I knew some of them were there, but I didn’t know exactly what they were planning. Sending them out would have shown them that I was bothered by their presence, so I watched them instead."

Rauf leaned back.

"And after the gunshot?"

"That was when Chris and I realized the party itself had probably been a test." Serena’s fingers tapped against the arm of her chair. "They came there looking for something. The problem is, I still don’t know whether they found it."

Rauf remembered the man with the chain saying the operation wouldn’t take place that night.

They must have changed their minds because of something they had learned at the party.

Then he remembered something else.

"There was a man monitoring my house before the party."

Serena shared a glance with Chris.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

Although Rauf hadn’t planned to share the story, he thought since they were working together, there was no point hiding it.

He told them about the man who had been monitoring the front of his mansion and how he had suddenly disappeared after the party.

Chris swallowed.

"But how is June? Is she fine? And how is the baby?"

He had missed teasing her, but it was harder to digest that after everything they had done, June could still be a suspect.

Rauf smiled. "Of course she’s fine. She’s most comfortable at my place."

Chris knew the situation between them, but he didn’t want to say anything else. Since Rauf had come willingly to them with information, he was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.

"Fine. I think it’s best we check the footage. Maybe we’ll be able to discover more about the men."

Serena didn’t move.

Her expression had become serious.

"The surveillance stopped after the party?"

"Yes."

"And you think that’s a good thing?" Serena asked.

Rauf narrowed his eyes.

Chris’s expression changed too.

Serena leaned back in her chair.

"If they were watching your house because they wanted information, there are only two reasons they would suddenly stop. Either they lost interest..." She paused. "Or they got what they wanted."

Silence fell over the room.

Rauf’s jaw tightened.

"What exactly happened when the gunshot went off?" Serena asked.

Rauf immediately remembered that moment.

The sound of the gunshot.

The chaos.

And June.

He hadn’t thought about anything else. His first instinct had been to get to her and make sure she was safe.

Serena watched his expression carefully.

"You protected her."

It wasn’t a question.

Rauf didn’t respond.

He didn’t need to.

"Fuck," Chris muttered.

"They don’t know who she is," Rauf said.

"I didn’t say they do," Serena replied. "But if they came there to observe us, they don’t need to know she’s my daughter to know she’s important."

Rauf’s expression darkened.

"Let’s see the footage."

Chris immediately turned toward the computer on his desk.

It took several minutes before they found the footage from the night of the party.

They started from the arrival of the guests.

People walked through the entrance one after another, each invitation checked before they were allowed inside.

Rauf leaned closer.

"Stop."

Chris paused the footage.

Rauf pointed at the screen.

"There."

Dante’s right-hand man was visible among a group of guests entering the mansion.

Serena’s gaze hardened.

Chris rewound the footage and played it again.

The man hadn’t walked through the gate alone.

He had entered with several other people.

"Who are they?" Rauf asked.

Chris zoomed in as much as he could.

"Guests."

"Obviously," Rauf responded impatiently. "Whose guests?"

Chris ignored him and pulled up the list from the party.

For the next few minutes, they compared faces and names.

Then Chris suddenly stopped.

"I found them."

Serena leaned forward.

"They were invited by one of our business partners."

Rauf’s gaze remained on the screen.

"Then either your business partner brought a Monterrio man into your house..."

"Or he joined their group before they entered," Serena finished.

Neither possibility was comforting.

"Keep watching," Rauf ordered.

Chris continued the footage.

They followed the man through different cameras.

At first, there was nothing strange.

He drank.

Spoke to people.

Moved around the party like every other guest.

Then Rauf noticed something.

"Go back."

Chris rewound it.

"Again."

He did.

Rauf stared at the screen.

The man wasn’t looking at Serena.

He wasn’t even looking at Amie.

His attention was fixed somewhere else.

"Change the camera."

Chris switched to another angle.

And there she was.

June.

The man stood several feet away, seemingly engaged in a conversation with another guest.

But his eyes weren’t on the person speaking to him.

They were on June.

Chris stopped breathing for a moment.

Serena’s face went completely cold.

"Keep playing."

The footage moved forward.

June moved.

Several seconds later, the man moved too.

Not directly after her.

Not close enough to make it obvious.

But enough.

Rauf’s hands slowly curled into fists.

Then the gunshot happened.

Guests scattered.

People screamed.

And Rauf appeared on the screen.

He moved straight toward June.

The man was still there.

Watching.

Rauf stared at the screen without blinking.

Serena finally spoke.

"They may not know she’s my daughter."

Her voice was colder than before.

"But they know she matters."