Chapter 6 - The Video
I knew the kitchen before the video started.
My kitchen.
Tuesday evening, six weeks earlier.
I had been in Cincinnati for work.
The camera showed Emily near the counter, gripping a butter knife.
Her face was blotchy.
Rebecca’s voice came from behind the phone.
“Put it down.”
Emily shook her head.
“Give it back.”
“Do you see what you’re doing?
You’re scaring me.”
“Give Mommy back.”
The clip ended there.
Twenty-three seconds.
Enough to turn a grieving child into a threat if you never asked what had happened before someone pressed record.
Dr. Brooks watched my face across a video call.
“This was described as an unprovoked incident.”
“Was she ever evaluated by someone who met her?”
“No.
The referral should not have reached transport.
I’m reviewing how that happened.”
“Start with the fact that I never authorized anything.”
“We’ve suspended the intake.
No placement is happening.”
I needed to hear that twice.
Then I called Luke.
“Ask Emily about the knife.
Don’t scare her.”
Ten minutes later, he called back.
Rebecca had taken one of Hannah’s birthday recordings.
She had held the little player over the trash disposal and told Emily it was time to stop listening to a dead woman.
Emily had been making toast.
She hadn’t picked up a weapon.
She had simply failed to put down the butter knife before begging.
I went into the garage.
Above the side door was an indoor security camera I had installed after a break-in on our block.
It faced the kitchen entrance.
Rebecca knew about the visible cameras.
She had never asked about that one.
The subscription kept sixty days.
Six weeks.
My fingers fumbled through the dates.
Tuesday.
6:14 p.m.
There she was.
Rebecca holding the player over the sink.
Emily reaching for it.
Then Rebecca raised her phone.
Before she began filming, her voice was perfectly calm.
“Let’s see if your father still wants you when he sees this.”
I saved the recording.
Then saved it again somewhere she couldn’t reach.
There were dozens of other clips.
I started opening them.
By the third, I had to step away from the screen.
By the fifth, I understood this hadn’t begun with the wedding.
May you like
And on the sixth, I heard someone else answer Rebecca from my kitchen.
Patricia said, “Once he marries you, he won’t dare make a scandal.”
