Chapter 3 - Someone Had Been WatchingDaniel stared at the photograph until its edges blurred. In it, Lily lay asleep beneath the star-patterned blanket. The angle was low, almost level with the top of the wardrobe.
“Somebody was in here,” he said.
Emma pointed to a small white device tucked behind a row of picture frames. Daniel climbed onto a chair and lifted it free. A tiny lens blinked blue.
“Your mother said that was a temperature sensor.” Emma's voice turned flat. “I asked why it needed to face the bed.”
Daniel unplugged it without testing the feed. He put it in a clean sandwich bag, photographed where it had been, and called the officer who had taken their report. They agreed not to tamper with anything else until the police could advise them on preserving evidence.
Emma watched Lily sleep in Daniel's arms. “She saw me change my clothes. She saw me cry. She heard every conversation.”
“I should have believed you.”
“You should have listened,” Emma replied. “That's different.”
He accepted it. During their marriage, he had explained away Ruth's intrusions: the spare key she refused to return, the surprise visits, the way she called Emma dramatic when Emma set a limit. Daniel had thought peace meant keeping his mother happy. Now he understood whom that peace had cost.
By evening they had changed the front-door codes, frozen shared account access, and arranged for Emma's sister, Nora, to stay with them. Nora arrived with groceries and a fierce hug.
“I'm not here to make decisions for you,” she said to Emma. “I'm here so you don't have to make them alone.”
Daniel opened his banking app. For months he had been paying a storage fee bundled into an old family subscription. The facility name matched the key.
“There's been a charge every month,” he said. “My mother told me it was for Dad's tools.”
His father, Michael, had died four years earlier. Daniel had never been allowed to sort through his belongings. Ruth had said it was too painful.
Nora didn't ask Emma to be composed. She warmed a bowl of food, washed the bottles, and took the trash out without announcing what a sacrifice it was. Emma noticed. Ruth had always called her help a debt to be repaid. Nora simply said, 'You'll do the same for me when I need you,' and changed the subject.
Nora studied the message on Daniel's screen. “Who knows about the unit besides her?”
Before Daniel could answer, an email arrived from Northside Storage: YOUR UNIT ACCESS CODE HAS BEEN RESET.
The security alert listed the authorized user who had requested the change.
It wasn't Ruth.
May you like
It was Daniel's late father.
Related Stories
