Chapter 3 - THE VIDEO VICTOR WANTED TO EXIST
Police interviewed Elena at the hospital.
She did not tell them Victor “almost killed” her.
She told them what happened.
An argument.
Victor blocking the door.
The cane.
The fall.
Helena and Raul watching.
Nora recording.
Elena trying to reach her phone.
Victor destroying it.
Then Eleanor’s security detail arriving.
The security team could describe what they saw when they entered.
They could not testify to what happened before.
That distinction mattered.
Nora’s video could.
But Nora was not returning calls.
Neither was Raul.
Victor retained an attorney before sunrise.
By noon, his position had begun changing.
According to information relayed through legal channels, Victor claimed Elena had become “physically erratic” during a family dispute and he had used the cane only to keep distance after she grabbed him.
Elena laughed when her attorney repeated it.
Then stopped.
“What?”
Her attorney, Maya Collins, did not look amused.
“He says Nora’s phone contains earlier videos showing you throwing things and screaming.”
Elena stared at her.
“I have screamed.”
“That isn’t the same as assaulting him.”
“I threw a wineglass once.”
“When?”
“February.”
“Why?”
Elena closed her eyes.
Victor had taken her car keys.
He stood in the doorway while she demanded them back.
Helena entered and told Elena she was embarrassing herself.
Nora filmed from the hallway.
Elena threw an empty glass into the sink.
It shattered.
Victor told her:
“There. That’s exactly what I mean.”
At the time she thought he was mocking her.
Now the sentence sounded rehearsed.
Maya asked:
“Any other recordings?”
“I don’t know.”
Elena remembered Nora’s phone appearing during arguments.
Victor provoking her.
Helena commenting on her “temper.”
Raul shaking his head afterward.
Small scenes.
Separate.
Harmless-looking.
The first serious consequence came that afternoon.
Maya advised Elena not to return to the mansion and helped her begin the process of seeking a temporary protective order.
Elena hated that Victor remained in the house while she was the one living out of a suitcase.
But safety and fairness were not identical.
Eleanor arranged a hotel suite under Elena’s own name and paid for one week only after Elena agreed to reimburse her later.
“I don’t want you dependent on me either,” Eleanor said.
Elena appreciated the sentence more than the room.
That night she opened a shared cloud-storage account Victor had forgotten existed.
Most family photographs were ordinary.
Vacations.
Birthdays.
Nora’s charity dinners.
Then Elena found a folder she had never created.
E — Episodes.
Her breathing changed.
Inside were seventeen short videos.
February through August.
Elena crying.
Elena shouting.
Elena slamming a bedroom door.
Elena throwing the wineglass.
Elena pulling her arm away from Victor.
Every clip began after an argument was already underway.
None showed how it started.
Someone had edited the context out.
Elena looked at the folder owner.
Nora Vale.
Then she noticed something stranger.
The folder had been shared with Victor.
And Helena.
Not Raul.
May you like
That inconsistency bothered her.
Because if this was merely a family habit of documenting Elena’s “instability,” why had Raul been excluded?
