Chapter 2 - What the Camera Missed
Ethan locked the security-room door.
Not to trap Vivian inside.
To keep her away from Lily.
"Marcus," he said into his phone. "Come to the foyer. Now."
Marcus Reed, head of household security, arrived less than a minute later. He took one look at Lily and stopped asking questions.
"Call Dr. Patel," Ethan said. "And the police."
Vivian laughed in disbelief. "The police? Over a tantrum?"
Ethan pointed at the screen.
"Over that."
"You have no context."
"Then give me some."
Vivian folded her arms. "Lily has been acting out for months. Hitting staff. Throwing food. Screaming. Her therapist said firm boundaries were necessary."
"What therapist?"
Silence.
Ethan stared at her.
"What therapist, Vivian?"
"Dr. Keller."
Ethan had never heard the name.
Lily lifted her head from his shoulder.
"No doctor."
The room went still.
Vivian's eyes sharpened. "Sweetheart, you don't remember."
Lily buried her face again.
Marcus moved between them.
"Mrs. Mercer, please step back."
Vivian looked at Ethan as if he had betrayed her.
"You are choosing a frightened child's memory over your wife."
"I'm choosing the video."
Dr. Patel arrived first. She examined Lily in the library while Ethan stayed beside her.
There were no broken bones.
But there were faint marks on Lily's upper arms that looked older than today.
"Could these come from normal play?" Ethan asked.
Dr. Patel did not answer immediately.
"Some could. Together, they concern me."
Ethan felt shame crawl up his throat.
He had traveled sixteen days that month.
He had accepted Vivian's explanations for Lily's new silence, the nightmares, the sudden refusal to bathe alone.
He had called it grief.
Adjustment.
A phase.
Police arrived and separated everyone.
Then Marcus returned from the server room.
His expression was wrong.
"Mr. Mercer, we have a problem."
"What?"
"The cameras only go back twenty-one days."
"They archive ninety."
"They should."
Marcus handed him a tablet.
Entire blocks of footage had been deleted.
Mostly afternoons.
Mostly from the east wing.
Mostly while Ethan was traveling.
"Who can erase archive footage?" Ethan asked.
Marcus hesitated.
"You. Me. And Vivian."
Across the room, Vivian smiled faintly.
Ethan saw it.
May you like
And knew she was not afraid of what the cameras had captured.
She was afraid of what one surviving camera might still contain.
