
The tension in the foyer thickened as Daniel pulled out his phone, some instinct telling him to check something, anything, that might help him understand what he was truly looking at. Victoria's composure cracked visibly the moment she saw the screen light up in his hands, her earlier gentle concern hardening rapidly into something far more defensive. "What are you doing?" she asked, her voice losing its practiced warmth entirely. Daniel didn't answer immediately, his eyes scanning something on the screen that made his jaw tighten, his expression darkening with each passing second. When he finally looked up, his gaze moved directly to Victoria, sharp and accusing in a way that made her visibly flinch. "You did that yourself," he said, his voice rising with barely restrained anger, though the exact meaning behind the accusation remained tantalizingly unclear to everyone else watching. Victoria's face flushed, panic flickering behind her eyes despite her best efforts to maintain composure. "Daniel, I don't know what you think you saw, but—" "Don't," he cut her off sharply, his voice carrying a finality that silenced her instantly. Behind them, Margaret remained kneeling, watching the exchange with cautious, desperate hope beginning to flicker across her tear-streaked face for the first time since Daniel had walked through those doors. Sofia, too, seemed to sense a shift in the room's balance, her posture straightening slightly despite the fear still evident in her trembling hands. Whatever Daniel had discovered on that phone, it had clearly cracked something open between him and Victoria, and everyone in that foyer could feel the fragile, dangerous tension building toward whatever was about to happen next.