The Heiress's Comeback-Chapter 319: [ Volume 1] Chaper - Doubt

Esme took another step, her smile now teasing, playful even, but there was an underlying edge to it. She raised her hand, and for a moment, the entire room seemed to collectively tense up. Was she going to destroy the camera? Had she figured it out?

But then—just when it seemed like the whole house was about to implode—Esme did the last thing anyone expected. She reached past the camera, her fingers brushing against something soft.

A stuffed toy. A large teddy bear, sitting innocently beside the camera.

She picked it up, holding it in front of her with an exaggerated flourish, as if it were the most important thing in the room. The camera’s lens captured every detail: the way she held the bear like it was an old friend, the sly grin playing at the corners of her lips. Then, with a casual turn, she took a few steps back, still holding the toy, still smiling.

Esme’s fingers brushed against the teddy bear in her hand, her smile soft yet laden with a weight that hinted at something darker beneath the surface. Without breaking her eye contact with the camera, she turned toward the wall. Placing the stuffed toy against it, she tilted her head slightly, her expression unreadable.

She turned back toward the camera, her gaze locking onto the unseen audience as if daring them to watch. Her smile twisted into something sharper, more dangerous, and in one swift motion, she clenched her fist.

With a sudden, forceful swing, her fist collided with the teddy bear’s stomach. The sound of impact was deafening, amplified by the high-quality microphone hidden in the room. The family in the surveillance room flinched as the vibrations from the strike seemed to ripple through the very foundations of the house.

The outcome was immediate and brutal. The teddy bear’s soft, innocent exterior was torn asunder, a gaping hole ripped through its stomach. But that wasn’t all. Esme’s fist didn’t stop at the toy—it drove through the doll and into the wall behind it, causing cracks to spiderweb outward with a low, ominous groan. The wall trembled under the force, and bits of plaster began to crumble to the floor.

For a moment, Esme’s hand remained buried in the wall, her knuckles pressed into the fractured surface. Then, with an eerie calmness, she withdrew her hand, brushing bits of stuffing and dust from her fingers. Her smile returned, warm and disarming, a stark contrast to the devastation she’d just wrought.

Carefully, she picked up the mutilated teddy bear, as though handling something precious. Gently, she dusted off its remains, patting it with the tenderness of a mother consoling a crying child. Her expression was soft, serene even, as though the violence moments before had been nothing but an illusion. 𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂

In the surveillance room, no one spoke. The old man gripped the edge of his chair, his knuckles white. Rei’s mouth hung open slightly, her mind racing to process what they’d just witnessed.

Esme straightened the doll on the table, smoothing out its tattered fur as though it hadn’t just been obliterated. Her actions carried an unnerving sense of normalcy, but her expression—calm, almost benevolent—betrayed the truth. This was no act of whimsy; it was a warning.

She turned back to the camera, her gaze colder now, piercing through the lens. The message was clear: try one more trick, and the consequences will be far worse.

The old man’s gaze remained unwavering on the screen in front of him, his wrinkled hands gripping the chair’s armrests so tightly that his knuckles turned white. The room, once filled with murmurs, had grown quiet, save for the faint hum of the surveillance monitors.

Rei sat rigid in her chair, her fingers hovering uncertainly over the keyboard. Her instincts screamed that something wasn’t right, though she couldn’t explain it. Esme’s actions moments earlier—the deliberate strike on the teddy bear, the unnerving precision of her gaze toward the camera—weren’t the random whims of someone unaware. No, Rei thought. That was intentional.

The others in the room, however, seemed far less concerned. On the monitor, Esme lay sprawled across the bed, her body still and her eyes closed, the very picture of someone who had slipped into sleep. Her breathing was slow and even, her posture relaxed as though she didn’t have a care in the world.

"Is she asleep?" one of the aunts asked hesitantly, breaking the heavy silence.

Another woman scoffed, waving a dismissive hand. "Looks like it. What else could she possibly be doing? She hasn’t moved for ages."

Their chatter resumed, but Rei’s unease only deepened. Her eyes flickered back to the screen, studying Esme’s face. The corners of her lips were tilted into the faintest shadow of a smile, almost as though she were mocking them. It wasn’t the expression of someone at rest; it was the expression of someone in control.

"Something’s wrong," Rei muttered under her breath, her voice barely audible. She shifted in her seat, glancing over at the old man. "Sir," she said louder this time, her tone edged with urgency, "we should check the other cameras. Just to be safe."

The old man didn’t respond immediately. His gaze remained fixed on Esme’s motionless figure, his eyes narrowing slightly as though he were trying to decipher a puzzle. Then, after a long pause, he nodded. "Do it," he said curtly.

Rei’s hands moved swiftly across the keyboard, pulling up the feeds from every camera installed in the house. One by one, the monitors displayed different sections of the mansion: dimly lit hallways, the grand but eerily empty living room, the sprawling kitchen where utensils hung silently, and even the shadowy corners of the secret passages.

For a moment, nothing seemed out of place. The house appeared to be as still as it had been earlier.

But just as Rei started to relax, her eyes caught something—a flicker on one of the screens. It was subtle, almost imperceptible, but unmistakable.

"Wait," she whispered, her voice barely steady. "Did you see that?"