Chapter 4 - The Unknown Number
Claire did not react to the photograph.
She turned the phone facedown.
“Who is it?” Daniel asked.
“Spam.”
He stepped closer.
“What kind?”
Claire laughed once.
“Since when do you care about spam?”
His eyes stayed on the phone.
Vanessa stood by the dining table now, arms crossed.
The room felt smaller.
Claire’s mind moved fast.
Who had sent the picture?
A neighbor?
An employee?
Someone Daniel had betrayed?
The message said not to go upstairs.
Why?
Claire looked toward the staircase.
Daniel followed her gaze.
“You should lie down,” he said.
There it was.
Too smooth.
Too quick.
“I’m not tired.”
“You look pale.”
“I’m angry.”
“At paperwork?”
Claire almost smiled.
He still thought she knew nothing.
“I’m going to my office.”
Daniel blocked the hallway.
“No.”
Vanessa’s expression flickered.
“Daniel, maybe—”
“Stay out of this.”
Claire stared at him.
“Move.”
He didn’t.
For fifteen years, Daniel had never physically blocked a doorway.
He had lied.
He had manipulated.
He had vanished into work for days.
But he had always maintained the image of the reasonable husband.
Now, for the first time, Claire saw the man underneath the performance.
Her phone buzzed again.
She glanced down.
A new message.
YOUR OFFICE CAMERA IS OFF. KITCHEN CAMERA STILL WORKS.
Claire looked toward the kitchen.
Then she understood.
Someone inside the house knew the camera system.
Not a stranger.
She spoke carefully.
“I need water.”
Vanessa immediately moved.
“I’ll get it.”
“No.”
Claire walked past her toward the kitchen.
Daniel followed.
The kitchen camera sat above the refrigerator, a tiny black lens Claire had forgotten existed.
She stood beneath it.
The next minutes moved fast, and every answer only exposed a deeper part of Daniel’s plan.
Claire set the bottle down.
“Interesting.”
Daniel’s eyes sharpened.
“What?”
“You had that sentence ready.”
Vanessa stepped in.
“Claire, nobody is trying to hurt you.”
Claire looked at her.
“You should be more careful with absolutes.”
Vanessa went white.
Daniel moved closer.
Claire’s phone buzzed for a third time.
She looked down.
The unknown sender had written:
May you like
I’M IN THE HOUSE.
Then, from the pantry behind them, something crashed.
