Chapter 4 - The Account He Couldn’t Erase
The security system had been installed by my father, Daniel, as a gift after Lily was born.
He owned a small commercial security company and had insisted on setting up an independent backup.
At the time, Ryan had teased him.
“Your dad thinks we’re guarding Fort Knox.”
That joke came back to me at 1:13 that morning.
I called Dad.
He heard my voice and stopped asking questions.
“I’m coming.”
Twenty-five minutes later, he was sitting beside me with his laptop.
I told him everything.
His face changed when I mentioned the camera.
“Ryan can disable your household account,” he said. “He can’t touch my service archive.”
My heart pounded.
“You saved recordings?”
“Only event clips. Thirty days.”
Thirty days.
Dad logged in.
Hundreds of motion events appeared.
Kitchen.
Front door.
Backyard.
Laundry room.
He opened the most recent laundry clip.
I grabbed his wrist.
“Not with Lily here.”
Rachel carried Lily upstairs.
Then Dad pressed play.
I saw myself rushing into the room.
I saw Diane dragging Lily.
I saw the slap.
Ryan arriving.
Everything.
Dad downloaded the file.
“Now we preserve it.”
But when he scrolled backward, something strange appeared.
The laundry camera had been manually disabled during specific periods.
Always while I was away.
Tuesday, 2:10–4:36.
Thursday, 11:04–1:18.
Saturday, 3:02–5:47.
Again and again.
Someone had deliberately created blind spots.
“Can you tell who did it?” I asked.
Dad checked the access logs.
Administrator: Ryan Parker.
My stomach turned.
Then Dad frowned.
“What?”
“There’s another device.”
A second administrator had accessed the system repeatedly.
Not Diane.
Not Ryan.
A phone I didn’t recognize.
And every time that device logged in, it happened minutes before the camera went dark.
Dad looked at me.
“Emma, somebody else had access to your house.”
Lily’s whisper came back to me.
You and Daddy didn’t do that alone.
May you like
She hadn’t been confused.
There really was someone else.
