Chapter 5 - THE CARD
Sarah moved first.
She shifted Leo to one arm and grabbed the card with the other.
Victoria slammed into her shoulder.
“Give me that!”
Sarah stumbled.
Ethan caught her.
“What the hell are you doing?” he shouted.
Victoria froze.
“I was trying to help.”
“By tackling her?”
“She almost dropped Leo!”
“No, I didn’t,” Sarah said.
Ethan took the memory card from Sarah.
Victoria’s breathing became fast.
“Ethan, listen to me.”
“No. You listen.”
His voice was quiet now.
That frightened Victoria more than yelling.
“You told me you knew nothing about the camera.”
“I don’t.”
“Daniel says you asked about blind spots.”
“I was redecorating.”
“And now the missing memory card is hidden behind a vase.”
“I didn’t put it there.”
Ethan stared at her.
“Then who did?”
Victoria pointed at Sarah.
“She did.”
Sarah laughed once.
“You saw me enter the room when Leo screamed.”
“She could’ve planted it earlier.”
Ethan looked at Sarah.
For a second, doubt returned.
Sarah hated how much that hurt.
“Check the card,” she said.
Ethan nodded.
They went to his office.
He inserted the card into his laptop.
A folder opened.
Hundreds of recordings.
Sarah stood beside him with Leo.
Victoria remained near the door.
“Two fourteen,” Ethan said.
He searched.
Nothing.
He searched again.
The files jumped from 2:10 to 2:20.
Victoria exhaled.
“The recording doesn’t exist.”
Sarah stared at the screen.
“No. It existed.”
“How do you know?”
“Because your face went pale when you saw the camera.”
“That proves nothing.”
Ethan clicked through older files.
Then stopped.
“What is this?”
A recording from six days earlier.
11:47 p.m.
Victoria entered the drawing room.
She looked toward the camera.
Then dragged a chair beneath it.
She climbed up.
Reached toward the lens.
The recording ended.
Ethan looked at her.
Victoria’s face was pale.
“I was cleaning it.”
“At midnight?”
“I couldn’t sleep.”
Sarah whispered, “Check after that.”
Ethan opened the next morning’s clip.
The camera angle had changed.
It now showed less of the crib.
More of the ceiling.
Ethan slowly pushed back from the desk.
“Why?”
Victoria’s eyes filled with tears.
“I felt watched.”
“It’s a baby monitor.”
“I live here too!”
“You moved a camera away from my son’s crib because you felt watched?”
Victoria turned toward Sarah.
“This is what she wanted. She’s making you question everything.”
Sarah said nothing.
She didn’t need to.
Ethan kept searching.
More clips.
Victoria covering the lens.
Victoria unplugging the monitor.
Victoria carrying Leo out of frame.
One clip showed her entering the nursery at 2:03 a.m.
Another showed her coming back at 2:41.
Ethan frowned.
“Where did you take him?”
Victoria’s eyes darted away.
“I don’t remember.”
“You carried my eight-month-old son somewhere for thirty-eight minutes in the middle of the night, and you don’t remember?”
“I was trying to help.”
“With what?”
“He wouldn’t stop crying.”
Ethan looked at Sarah.
“Were you working that night?”
Sarah thought.
“Yes. Victoria told me Leo was sleeping and said I could go home early.”
Victoria shook her head.
“No.”
“Yes, you did.”
Ethan clicked another file.
This one showed Victoria returning with Leo.
He was limp against her shoulder.
Too limp.
Sarah stepped closer to the screen.
“Pause.”
Ethan paused.
Leo’s head rested unnaturally against Victoria’s chest.
Sarah whispered, “He looks drugged.”
Victoria exploded.
“That is disgusting!”
Ethan stood so fast his chair rolled backward.
“Was he given anything?”
“No!”
“Medication?”
“No!”
“Cough syrup?”
“No!”
Sarah remembered something.
“The bottle.”
Everyone turned.
“What bottle?” Ethan asked.
“Two mornings ago I found an empty medicine dropper beside the kitchen sink.”
Victoria’s face changed.
Ethan saw it.
“Victoria?”
She backed toward the door.
“I’m done being interrogated.”
Ethan stepped in front of her.
“No. You’re not going anywhere.”
May you like
Then the house alarm began screaming.
A second later, smoke poured from the upstairs hallway.
