Chapter 2: The Videos That Never Went Public
At 12:07 a.m., James Mercer called Nadia Price.
She answered on the fourth ring.
“Mr. Mercer?””
“Where are you?””
A pause.
“At home.””
“Did you send me a message?””
Silence.
James stood and walked away from Sophie's bed, stopping beside the hospital window. Outside, headlights drifted across the wet pavement. Someone was arguing softly near the elevators.
“Nadia,” he said, “my daughter spent her birthday begging her mother to stop hurting her. I need the truth. No careful phrasing. No protecting anyone's reputation.””
Nadia exhaled shakily.
“I didn't send the first message.””
“Someone sent me a message telling me to ask you what Victoria made you delete.””
He heard her begin to cry.
“I'm sorry.””
“Don't apologize. Tell me what you know.””
“I can't do this over the phone.””
“Then meet me.””
“She's probably watching my location.””
“Who's watching your location?””
Nadia didn't answer.
James closed his eyes.
He wanted to demand everything she knew, every detail, every hidden truth. But the memory of Sophie flinching when a nurse reached for the blanket stopped him.
Fear did not disappear because someone powerful ordered it to.
“All right,” he said.
“I'm staying at the hospital. Come here if you're ready.””
“Mr. Mercer?””
“Yes?””
“If I tell you, she's going to say I'm lying.””
James looked through the glass at Sophie.
“Then we'll find evidence.””
He ended the call.
At 1:20 a.m., Nadia arrived wearing jeans, a grey sweatshirt, and a baseball cap pulled low over her forehead. She carried no handbag, only an old phone with a cracked corner.
She stopped outside Sophie's room.
“Is she awake?””
“No.””
“Good.””
James studied her face.
“You look terrified.””
“I am.””
“Of Victoria?””
Nadia looked toward the hallway before answering.
“Of what she'll do if she finds out I kept copies.””
James opened a small consultation room nearby.
“Sit down.””
Nadia remained standing until he closed the door. Then she placed the old phone on the table and pushed it toward him.
“Don't connect it to your home accounts,” she said.
“Don't log in to anything using your usual email. Just look at the files.””
James frowned.
“What exactly am I looking at?””
“Things that were supposed to disappear.””
She unlocked the phone and opened a folder containing dozens of short videos. The files were dated over several months, with several clustered around mornings when Victoria had filmed content for Brave Little Sophie.
The first showed Sophie in the family kitchen.
She wore a yellow rehabilitation shirt. Her hair was messy, and she looked exhausted.
Victoria's voice came from behind the camera.
“Again, Sophie. This time, say you're proud of yourself.””
“I am proud of myself.””
“No, that's not how we practiced it.””
Sophie rubbed her eyes.
“I'm trying.””
“Then stop looking miserable.””
The video ended.
James stared at the black screen.
“Why was this recorded?””
“Victoria often recorded several versions of the same clip,” Nadia explained.
“She'd choose the one where Sophie looked happiest. The others were supposed to be deleted.””
“Supposed to be?””
“I saved some.””
James opened another file.
This time, Sophie sat in a therapy room beside a set of colorful blocks. A man off-camera asked her to attempt an exercise. She hesitated, her expression tightening with discomfort.
Victoria stepped into view.
“Come on, darling. We need one more attempt.””
“I need a break.””
“Your followers are waiting for an update.””
“My leg hurts.””
Victoria reached for the phone and stopped the recording.
The image shook.
The file ended.
James placed the phone on the table.
“Was that a real therapy session?””
“No. The therapist wasn't there. Victoria had moved the furniture into the same arrangement and asked Sophie to repeat an exercise she'd seen during rehabilitation.””
“Why?””
“To make a video.””
James sat very still.
For months, he had watched Victoria discuss Sophie's progress with a confidence that had impressed him. She cited exercises, milestones, setbacks, and victories. He had assumed that she understood their daughter's treatment better than he did because she was the one at home.
Now he was watching his daughter perform discomfort for a camera.
“How many videos are there?””
“Thirty-seven in that folder. I have more elsewhere.””
“Why didn't you come to me?””
Nadia lowered her eyes.
“Because the first time I tried, Victoria told me I would lose my job. Then she showed me screenshots of private messages I'd sent my sister and said she could make trouble for me if I caused problems for her family.””
James's jaw tightened.
“What sort of trouble?””
“She knew my sister had been struggling financially. Victoria offered to help her get work through the foundation. When I questioned one of the charity's expenses, my sister suddenly stopped receiving calls about the job.””
James looked at her sharply.
“You questioned charity expenses?””
Nadia nodded.
“Last spring. I was organizing receipts for a campaign. A payment had been made to a company that didn't seem connected to the foundation. When I asked about it, Victoria said it was a consulting firm handling media strategy.””
“Do you remember the company's name?””
“Northstar Creative.””
The name meant nothing to him, but he wrote it down.
“And the videos?””
Nadia hesitated before unlocking another folder.
“These are the ones she wanted me to delete most urgently.””
The first clip showed Sophie seated in her bedroom, still wearing her pajamas. A makeup artist was wiping tears from her cheeks with a tissue.
Victoria's voice was clear.
“Don't rub them away. The tears look more natural if we let them fall.””
James felt sick.
Sophie looked into the camera.
“Can I go now?””
“After we finish,” Victoria replied.
“I don't want people watching me.””
Victoria bent forward until her face filled the screen.
“People watching you are the reason we're able to help other children. You should be proud.””
“But I don't want them to see me cry.””
“Then give them something worth watching.””
The screen went dark.
James gripped the edge of the table.
Nadia rubbed her palms together.
“That video was never posted. Victoria said Sophie looked too unhappy in it. She made me delete it from the editing folder.””
“But you kept it.””
“I couldn't make myself erase it.””
James looked at the remaining files.
“What was the message I received tonight? Who sent it?””
“I don't know. I've kept copies because I was scared she'd destroy everything. But I didn't contact you until today.””
“Why today?””
Nadia looked at him, and for the first time, her fear seemed to give way to something harder.
“Because Sophie looked at you in the garden as if she was asking whether she was allowed to be frightened. I have seen her do that hundreds of times. Today, everyone saw it too.””
James didn't know what to say.
He had built an entire business on recognizing patterns before they became problems. He knew how to identify a fraudulent contract, how to spot a failing investment, how to negotiate with people who smiled while calculating the cost of his defeat.
Yet he had failed to recognize the pattern in his own home.
“What do you mean, hundreds of times?””
Nadia pressed her lips together.
“I don't mean she's been hurt the same way every time. Sometimes Victoria shouted. Sometimes she threatened to take away Sophie's toys.
Sometimes she made Sophie repeat a line until she said it correctly. And sometimes she didn't have to do anything at all.””
“Explain.””
“Sophie learned what was expected of her. If a camera came out, she smiled. If Victoria asked whether she was happy, she said yes. If she cried, Victoria called it a performance problem.””
James leaned back in his chair.
“Performance problem?””
“That's what Victoria called it when Sophie couldn't stop crying during a shoot.””
The phrase settled over him like ash.
He thought of the birthday stream, of Victoria turning toward the cameras while Sophie coughed and struggled.
He could still hear the laughter.
“Was she ever left alone with anyone from the production team?”” he asked.
“Not that I saw. Victoria always stayed nearby.””
“Did anyone else know?””
“Some of the people who worked on the videos must have noticed things. But they were paid contractors. They came and went.””
“Where are the original recordings?””
Nadia took a breath.
“Some are on the phone. Others are in an old cloud folder that Victoria hasn't used in months. I don't have access to the main account anymore.””
“Can you access the old folder?””
“I think so.””
“Then we preserve what you have. No editing. No deleting. I want to speak to a lawyer and an independent specialist who can tell us how to protect Sophie.””
Nadia finally sat down.
“There's something else.””
James waited.
“The charity isn't just a way for Victoria to make money from endorsements.””
He stared at her.
“What does that mean?””
“I don't know everything. I only saw enough to realize the numbers didn't match. Some sponsorship money went through the foundation, but a portion ended up with Northstar Creative. Victoria signed off on the transfers.””
“Was the foundation paying for legitimate services?””
“Some payments may have been. Others were impossible to explain. I asked for invoices, and she told me not to worry about anything that wasn't my department.””
James looked at the name he had written on his notepad.
Northstar Creative.
His company employed an entire department dedicated to financial investigations, yet he knew he couldn't simply seize records or accuse his wife without understanding the facts. If money had been misused, he needed to establish where it went. If Sophie had been harmed, he needed professionals who would put her safety ahead of public attention.
But first, he needed to make sure Victoria could not get to their daughter.
“I'll arrange protection for Sophie,” he said.
“And I'll make sure nobody pressures you to hand over anything or destroy it.””
Nadia's expression crumpled.
“She'll never forgive me.””
“This isn't about what she forgives.””
He returned to Sophie's room.
The girl had stirred in her sleep. One hand moved across the blanket before settling against the empty space beside her.
James sat down.
“I'm here, sweetheart,” he whispered, though she wasn't awake to hear him.
His phone vibrated.
This time, the message came from Victoria.
The birthday stream is spreading everywhere. You need to come home so we can handle this privately.
Another arrived.
You cannot take Sophie away from me over a misunderstanding.
James stared at the words.
He hadn't told Victoria what the nurse had asked. He hadn't told her about the videos. He hadn't told her about Nadia.
Yet she already seemed to be preparing a defense.
He typed a reply.
Sophie is staying here tonight. Do not come to the hospital until her care team says she is ready.
The response arrived almost immediately.
You have no idea what she's like when you're not around.
James's fingers stopped over the screen.
It was not an apology.
It was not concern about their daughter.
It was a warning.
He put the phone away and reached for the old device Nadia had left him.
One file remained unopened. Its date was nearly a year old, from the week James had departed for his longest overseas trip.
He pressed play.
The video showed Sophie's bedroom door from the hallway. Victoria stood just outside it, speaking to someone who remained off-camera.
“By the time he comes back, she won't remember any of this.””
A man's voice answered.
“You can't keep doing this forever.””
Victoria laughed softly.
“I don't have to. I only need him to believe me.””
James stopped the recording.
He looked toward his daughter.
Nearly a year.
May you like
That was how long he had been away for much of the time when it mattered most.
And somewhere beyond the hospital walls, Victoria was already deciding which version of the story she would tell him next.
