Chapter 4 - The Cracked Photograph
General Hale bent and picked up a framed family photograph from the floor.
The glass had cracked across Harper’s face.
Tyler and Ava remained untouched.
“When did this break?” Hale asked.
Carol answered immediately.
“Harper dropped it.”
Harper looked at her.
“I’ve been in Kansas.”
Carol’s mouth closed.
Tyler stepped in.
“The frame fell this morning.”
General Hale studied the back.
A small security-camera memory card had been taped behind it.
Everyone went silent.
Harper recognized it.
Six months earlier, after packages disappeared from the front porch, she had installed a miniature interior camera facing the entryway.
Tyler hated it.
He said cameras made the house feel like a prison.
Eventually, he claimed the device had stopped working.
Harper had forgotten the recording unit remained inside the frame.
General Hale removed the card carefully.
Tyler moved toward him.
“That’s private property.”
“The frame belongs to Harper,” Hale replied.
“So does the house,” Harper said.
Tyler’s face changed.
He had always called it his house.
But the down payment had come from Harper’s deployment savings and a small inheritance from her father.
Both names appeared on the deed.
Carol pointed at the camera card.
“You can’t record people without permission.”
General Hale looked at her.
“You appeared extremely confident a moment ago. Why does a memory card frighten you?”
Carol’s hands began to tremble.
Harper noticed something else near the broken frame.
A folded receipt.
The top line showed the name of a mail-order genetic testing company.
May you like
The purchase had been made using Carol’s credit card.
👉 Carol had bought the test—but Tyler had used a different man’s sample to create the result.
