Chapter 5 - THE CAMERA ABOVE THE STAIRS
Emily’s fingers tightened around the broken plastic.
“You knew about this?”
Robert sat slowly at the kitchen table.
Suddenly he looked older than sixty-two.
“What camera was it?”
He didn’t answer.
“Dad.”
Robert rubbed both hands over his face.
“Daniel installed cameras after someone tried breaking into their garage last year.”
“I know.”
“There were four.”
Emily stared at the shattered device.
“And this?”
“Rachel installed more.”
“How many?”
“I don’t know.”
“That’s a lie.”
Robert looked up.
“Three.”
Emily felt cold.
“Where?”
“One in the hallway. One in Noah’s room.”
Emily’s stomach turned.
“And the third?”
Robert said nothing.
“Where?”
“In the laundry room.”
Emily nearly stopped breathing.
The same laundry room where Noah said Rachel had locked him.
“Why?”
“She said Noah was having behavioral problems.”
“So she secretly recorded him?”
“She wanted to know what he was doing.”
“Why did you know?”
Robert stood.
“Because she asked me to install them.”
Emily stepped backward.
“You installed cameras in a seven-year-old’s bedroom?”
“It wasn’t pointed at his bed.”
“That is not remotely the point!”
“Keep your voice down.”
Emily laughed in disbelief.
“You helped her monitor him.”
“She thought he was stealing.”
“Stealing what?”
“Food.”
The answer hit strangely.
Emily frowned.
“Food?”
Robert nodded reluctantly.
“She said snacks were disappearing.”
Emily remembered Noah refusing breakfast.
The way he had clutched his backpack.
“What did she do?”
Robert looked away.
“What did she do when he took food?”
“I don’t know.”
Emily stepped closer.
“You know.”
Robert’s silence lasted too long.
Emily’s voice dropped.
“What did she do?”
“She made him earn meals.”
Emily felt nauseated.
“Explain.”
“Chores.”
“What chores?”
“Cleaning.”
“What else?”
Robert wouldn’t look at her.
“How long did she make him go without eating?”
“She never starved him.”
“That’s not what I asked.”
Robert slammed his fist on the table.
“Stop using that word!”
“What word?”
“Starved.”
Emily stared at him.
Robert’s face was red.
“She fed him.”
“When?”
“He ate dinner.”
“So breakfast and lunch were conditional?”
Robert said nothing.
Emily whispered, “Oh my God.”
“She said the pediatrician told her he was gaining too much weight.”
“Did you hear the pediatrician say that?”
“No.”
“Did Daniel know?”
“No.”
“Why?”
Robert closed his eyes.
“She said Daniel would overreact.”
Emily almost smiled at the absurdity.
“Overreact.”
“She was overwhelmed.”
“And Noah was hungry.”
Robert’s shoulders sagged.
Emily looked at the broken camera.
“Why did she destroy this tonight?”
“She said she didn’t want anyone misinterpreting recordings.”
Emily laughed once.
“Which means the recordings are worse than what Noah captured.”
Robert looked at her.
“You don’t know that.”
“Yes, I do.”
Emily examined the plastic.
“Where were the recordings stored?”
Robert’s expression changed again.
A fraction of hesitation.
Emily saw it.
“Where?”
“Cloud account.”
“Whose account?”
“Rachel’s.”
“Password?”
“I don’t know.”
Another lie.
Emily moved toward him.
“Dad.”
“I don’t.”
“You helped install them.”
“That doesn’t mean I know her password.”
Emily studied him.
Then she remembered something from childhood.
Robert reused passwords constantly.
Birthdays.
Street numbers.
Baseball teams.
He never believed anyone would notice patterns.
Rachel had learned from him.
Emily took her laptop.
“What are you doing?”
“Finding the recordings.”
Robert stood.
“Absolutely not.”
Emily looked up.
“Why?”
“Because you’re crossing a line.”
“She recorded a child without telling his father.”
“She is his mother!”
“And Daniel is his father.”
Robert moved toward the laptop.
Emily slammed it shut.
“Touch it and I call Daniel now.”
Robert stopped.
Emily stared at him.
“What are you more afraid of? Rachel getting caught or Daniel learning you helped her?”
His face answered.
Emily opened the laptop again.
She searched the camera manufacturer printed on the broken casing.
The device used a popular residential security platform.
Login email.
Password.
Emily guessed Rachel’s email.
Then tried combinations.
Wrong.
Wrong.
Wrong.
On the fourth attempt, she paused.
Noah’s birthday.
709.
Rachel loved numbers tied to personal dates.
She tried NoahCarter0709.
The screen changed.
Welcome, Rachel.
Emily froze.
Robert whispered, “Don’t.”
She opened the device archive.
Three cameras appeared.
Hallway.
Noah Room.
Utility.
Dozens of recordings.
Some automatically saved because motion had been detected.
Emily clicked the oldest available file.
Two months earlier.
Noah sat on his bedroom floor.
Rachel stood above him.
He was crying.
His dinner plate sat outside the doorway.
Rachel said, “When you stop lying, you can eat.”
Noah whispered, “I’m not lying.”
Rachel picked up the plate.
“Then I guess you’re not hungry.”
She walked away.
The clip ended.
Emily’s eyes filled with tears.
Robert sat down.
“No.”
Emily clicked another.
Noah stood in the laundry room.
The light was off except for a small glow from the hallway.
Rachel pushed him inside.
“I told you not to call your father during my work meeting.”
“Daddy called me.”
“You could have ignored it.”
“No.”
Rachel shut the door.
The timestamp continued.
Ten minutes.
Twenty.
Thirty.
The video ended automatically.
Emily opened the next motion event.
One hour and seventeen minutes later.
Rachel opened the door.
Noah was asleep on the floor.
Emily turned toward Robert.
“You called that five minutes.”
Robert looked destroyed.
“I didn’t know.”
“You didn’t want to know.”
Another clip.
Another punishment.
Another threat.
Then Emily opened a file from six weeks earlier.
The hallway camera.
Rachel was arguing with someone just outside frame.
A man.
His voice was muffled.
Robert stiffened.
Emily looked at him.
“You recognize him?”
Robert stood suddenly.
“Turn it off.”
Emily looked at the screen.
Rachel said, “Daniel can never know.”
The man answered.
Emily couldn’t hear.
Rachel replied, “I said I’ll handle Noah.”
The man stepped partly into view.
Emily froze.
She knew him.
Not well.
But enough.
He was Robert’s younger brother.
Uncle Steven.
May you like
A man Emily had not seen in nearly five years.
And according to the entire Carter family, Steven Carter was supposed to be living in Arizona.
