Chapter 3 - What Mason Had Seen Before
Michael took the memory card.
“Why did you remove this?”
Mason looked down.
“Because Aunt Sophia kept checking the camera.”
Michael crouched.
“When?”
“Lots of times.”
Sophia interrupted.
“He's seven, Michael.”
Michael didn't look at her.
“Let him talk.”
Mason explained that Sophia had started visiting the upstairs hallway whenever Michael was at work.
Sometimes she stood beneath the camera.
Sometimes she opened the small security panel inside the linen closet.
Once, Mason saw her delete something.
“What?”
“I don't know.”
Sophia scoffed.
“Children make things up.”
Mason's face fell.
Emily pulled him close.
Michael noticed the reaction.
His sister hadn't simply denied Mason.
She had said it like she'd said it before.
“Mason, has Aunt Sophia told you not to tell us things?”
The boy nodded.
Sophia snapped:
“Michael, stop interrogating him.”
Emily looked at her.
“He's answering his father.”
Michael inserted the card into his laptop.
Sophia moved toward the front door.
“I'm leaving.”
“No.”
Michael's voice stopped her.
He didn't touch her.
“You accused my pregnant wife of throwing you down the stairs. You stay until we know what happened.”
The memory card contained weeks of clips.
Michael selected that afternoon.
Sophia's breathing became audible.
Then Emily touched his arm.
“Wait.”
He looked at her.
Her eyes were wet.
“You don't get to watch that and pretend what you did disappears.”
Michael looked at the mark on her cheek.
His face collapsed slightly.
“Emily—”
“You didn't ask me one question.”
“I thought—”
“Exactly.”
She stepped away.
Michael couldn't answer.
He had failed her before any camera could prove anything.
Then the laptop made a sound.
The video file had loaded.
Sophia suddenly lunged toward it.
Michael caught the laptop first.
“Sophia!”
She froze.
Everyone stared at her.
Michael slowly lowered the computer.
“Why are you so afraid of this recording?”
Sophia's lips parted.
No answer.
Emily noticed something else on the memory card.
Folders.
Not just today.
Dozens of manually saved clips.
One was labeled by date.
Six weeks earlier.
The night Emily had fallen in the kitchen and Sophia claimed she had found her unconscious.
Emily stared at the date.
May you like
She had never remembered how that fall happened.
And Sophia had been the only other adult home.
