Chapter 10 - What Carolina Prepared
The neighbor, Daniel Mercer, refused to send the full file through a message.
“It needs to stay original,” he said. “No editing. No accusations that it was altered.”
Sawyer agreed to meet him with an attorney present.
But Daniel described the beginning.
At 10:06 p.m., Carolina carried the crystal bowl onto the patio.
She placed it beside the rain bucket.
Then she moved a rubber mat away from the wettest section of stone.
Sawyer closed his eyes.
“She made the surface more dangerous.”
“It appears that way.”
“What happened next?”
“I think you should see it with counsel.”
“Did she touch Gracie?”
A pause.
“Yes.”
Sawyer gripped the phone.
Across the hospital room, Gracie slept under warmed blankets with her rabbit beside her.
“What exactly did she do?”
Daniel’s voice lowered.
“I won’t describe it while you’re alone with your daughter. But you need to know this wasn’t one sudden loss of control.”
Sawyer understood.
Carolina had planned a punishment.
Possibly before Gracie knew she was being punished.
“Why was your camera facing our patio?” he asked.
“My wife asked me to install it after someone kept entering our side yard.”
“Did Carolina know?”
“I told her last week.”
Sawyer stared at the messages on his screen.
Carolina had known there might be a recording.
That explained why she locked Gracie away, cleaned the visible glass, changed her into sleepwear, and invented a late fall.
She had been trying to control the timeline before Sawyer came home.
Bonnie stood in the doorway.
“She just called me,” she said.
“What did she want?”
May you like
“She asked me to return to the house and destroy the camera system.”
👉 Bonnie finally chose a side—and secretly recorded the most revealing phone call Carolina had made all night.
