Chapter 4 - The Camera in the Smoke Detector
The first hidden camera was discovered by accident.
Ethan threw a foam airplane in the living room, striking the smoke detector. The plastic cover fell loose, revealing a tiny lens.
Sarah stared at it.
David returned home twenty minutes later and found her standing on a chair, holding the device.
He did not deny knowing about it.
“It’s security,” he said.
“Security cameras are usually outside.”
“Break-ins happen.”
“In our living room?”
David took the device from her.
“You’re becoming paranoid.”
Sarah looked toward Chloe and Ethan. Both children had gone silent.
“How many cameras are there?”
David stepped closer.
“Enough to keep my family safe.”
“Safe from whom?”
His answer came after a pause.
“From bad decisions.”
That evening, David replaced the smoke detector and warned Sarah never to touch the equipment again.
She waited until he went to bed, then searched the house.
She found another lens inside the clock facing the kitchen table. A third was hidden in a bookshelf. There was one in the children’s playroom and another pointed toward the front door.
The bedroom mirror felt slightly warm near its lower corner.
Sarah could not remove it without making noise, but she knew.
David had not merely been watching the entrances.
He had been watching them.
The following morning, Sarah called her sister, Melissa, from a grocery store restroom using a stranger’s phone.
“I think I need to leave,” Sarah whispered.
Melissa told her to take the children and come immediately.
Sarah returned home determined to pack.
But David was waiting in the kitchen.
“You made a phone call at 10:42 this morning,” he said.
Sarah felt the room tilt.
May you like
He placed her car keys on the table and closed his hand over them.
“You are not going anywhere.”
