Chapter 8 - The Video Goes Public
Lucía received the file.
So did I.
Daniel had added my email to the emergency upload list years ago and forgotten about it.
The video arrived while I was changing Sofia’s bandage.
I pressed play.
I watched my daughter wander into the courtyard.
I watched her pick up the toy truck.
I watched Mariela look toward the kitchen.
She checked whether anyone was watching.
Then she lifted the cup.
She waited.
She aimed.
She threw.
Sofia fell backward.
The sound of her scream filled my cousin’s apartment.
I dropped the phone.
Elena rushed in.
“What happened?”
I couldn’t speak.
The video continued playing on the floor.
Teresa entered the frame.
She looked at Sofia.
Then at the camera.
“Get that child out of my house.”
Elena covered her mouth.
“Oh my God.”
Another figure appeared in the background.
Ricardo.
He didn’t help Sofia.
He walked directly toward the security cabinet.
He had started thinking about the evidence before I had even picked up my child.
I called Daniel.
No answer.
I called again.
Nothing.
Then Lucía called me.
“We have the video.”
“Daniel isn’t answering.”
“Officers are on the way to Ricardo’s office.”
“What do I do?”
“Stay where you are.”
A knock sounded at Elena’s door.
Three slow knocks.
Elena and I looked at each other.
“Police?” she whispered.
“No.”
Police would announce themselves.
The knocking came again.
“Sofia!” Teresa called from the hallway. “Grandma brought you something.”
My blood went cold.
Elena pointed toward the bedroom.
I carried Sofia inside and locked the door.
Teresa continued knocking.
“Camila, don’t make this worse.”
I called Lucía.
“She found us.”
“How?”
“I don’t know.”
“Do not open the door.”
The handle turned.
Teresa had a key.
Elena stared at the lock.
“How does she have a key?”
I remembered.
Elena had once lent Daniel a spare key while we were traveling.
Daniel had left it inside his parents’ kitchen drawer.
The door opened.
Teresa stepped inside holding a pink stuffed rabbit.
She smiled at Elena.
“I’m here to see my granddaughter.”
Elena grabbed a kitchen knife.
“Leave.”
Teresa looked almost amused.
“Put that down before you hurt yourself.”
I stepped from the bedroom.
“Get out.”
Teresa’s smile vanished.
“You released the video.”
“I sent it to the police.”
“It’s online.”
I stared at her.
“What?”
“My daughter is being called a monster.”
“She burned a toddler.”
“You’ve ruined her life.”
“She did that herself.”
Teresa’s hand tightened around the stuffed rabbit.
Something hard shifted beneath the fabric.
Elena saw it too.
“What’s inside the toy?” she asked.
Teresa looked down.
Then Sofia began coughing behind me.
Teresa moved toward the sound.
I blocked her.
She whispered, “You need to give me your phone.”
“No.”
“And every copy of the recording.”
“No.”
Teresa’s hand slipped inside the rabbit.
When it came out, she was holding a small glass bottle.
The label carried Sofia’s name.
It was her burn medication.
Teresa smiled.
“You forgot something at the hospital.”
I looked toward the medicine bag on the counter.
It was open.
One bottle was missing.
May you like
And I suddenly understood why Teresa had come.
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