Chapter 1 - The Camera Under the Patio
Diane lunged for the phone.
I jerked it against my chest before her fingers could touch it.
“Don’t.”
My voice came out so cold that she froze.
Behind me, Lily clung to my jeans, sobbing. The red mark around her neck from the dog chain made my stomach turn.
Thirty seconds earlier, I had run into my backyard and found my nine-month-old daughter locked inside our dog kennel.
Now Diane—my husband’s mother—was staring at the security footage that proved she had put her there.
“How long have you been doing this?” I demanded.
“Claire, give me the phone.”
“No.”
Her face changed.
Not guilt.
Fear.
I looked down at the recording again. Diane had dragged Lily toward the kennel, shoved her inside, slammed the metal door, and locked it.
But then I noticed something I hadn’t seen the first time.
After locking Lily inside, Diane walked directly beneath the security camera.
She looked up at it.
And smiled.
My blood went cold.
She knew it was recording.
So why hadn’t she cared?
I scrubbed backward through the camera history.
Monday.
Tuesday.
Wednesday.
There were missing sections.
Not random glitches.
Every afternoon between 1:00 and 3:00 p.m.—the exact hours Diane usually watched Lily while I ran errands—the recordings had been deleted.
Except today’s.
“You erased them,” I whispered.
Diane’s eyes flicked toward the house.
That tiny movement told me everything.
Someone else was involved.
Then my phone buzzed in my pocket.
It was my husband, Ryan.
I answered immediately.
Before I could speak, he said, “Claire, don’t let Mom leave.”
I stared at Diane.
Ryan’s next words made my knees weak.
“I found something in her room.”
May you like
Diane suddenly bolted toward the patio door.
👉 Whatever Ryan had found upstairs frightened Diane more than the video of her abusing my daughter.
