Chapter 5 - The First Photograph
The first photograph in Frank’s envelope had been taken three months earlier.
Sarah stood near the kitchen counter with a purple mark around her wrist.
She did not remember anyone taking it.
Leah did.
“I came by after Derek said you were sick.”
Sarah looked at her.
“You told me you were visiting a friend.”
“Derek wouldn’t leave us alone.”
Leah had pretended to take a photograph of a recipe on Sarah’s phone.
Instead, she captured the bruise.
At the time, Sarah insisted she hit the cabinet.
Leah did not believe her.
The second photograph showed a broken bedroom door.
The third showed prenatal medication scattered across the bathroom floor.
The fourth showed Derek’s hand gripping Sarah’s upper arm during an argument in the driveway.
A neighbor’s camera captured it.
Sarah could not look at that one for long.
“I don’t remember sending these.”
“You didn’t,” Frank said.
“Then how did you get them?”
“Leah sent the first two. Someone else sent the rest.”
Derek’s attention moved toward the security camera.
Frank noticed.
“Who controls that system?”
“I do.”
“No,” Leah said. “Not anymore.”
She had changed the administrator password two days earlier after discovering Derek repeatedly deleted footage.
The camera now uploaded to an external account.
Derek looked toward her.
“You had no right.”
“You locked me in a room.”
“You were stealing private information.”
“I was preserving evidence.”
Sarah lowered herself carefully onto the sofa.
The baby shifted beneath her dress.
She placed one hand over the movement.
Frank crouched in front of her.
“Are you in pain?”
“No.”
“Do you need a hospital?”
“I need to understand.”
Frank nodded.
He did not push.
May you like
Derek had spent years speaking for Sarah.
Frank would not protect her by doing the same thing.
