Chapter 7 - David's Blind Spot)
David did not return home with Leo.
He drove to his mother's house instead.
Helen Mercer opened the door and immediately knew something was wrong.
"David?"
"Can we stay here tonight?"
She looked at Leo.
Then at her son.
"Of course."
Helen had never liked Valerie.
She had been polite because David asked her to be.
But when David explained what had happened, the seventy year old woman's face turned hard.
"You leave Leo here."
David nodded.
"I need to go back."
"Alone?"
"Yes."
"That woman is dangerous."
"I don't know what she is."
Helen looked at him.
"You know enough."
David hated that sentence because it was true.
He returned to the mansion just after four.
Valerie was waiting in the foyer.
"Where is Leo?"
"With my mother."
"Why?"
"She's watching him tonight."
Valerie crossed her arms.
"Without asking me?"
David put down his keys.
"He's my son."
"And I'm your wife."
He looked at her.
Valerie noticed.
"What?"
"Nothing."
"You keep saying that."
David walked toward the kitchen.
Valerie followed.
"What did the doctor say?"
"He's healthy."
"See?"
David stopped.
"Why did you disable the nursery camera?"
The question landed between them.
Valerie did not blink.
"I told you."
"No. You told Sarah you probably pressed something."
"Yes."
"Six times?"
Her face changed.
Only slightly.
David saw it.
"I checked the logs."
Valerie recovered.
"I turn it off when I change clothes."
"In Leo's nursery?"
"Sometimes."
"Every time I travel?"
Valerie stared at him.
David continued.
"The system recorded your phone."
"So?"
"So stop lying."
Valerie's eyes filled with tears.
David almost hated himself for feeling the old instinct to comfort her.
She had always been good at crying at the exact moment anger became dangerous.
"I can't believe this."
"Believe what?"
"That you're interrogating me because a maid poisoned you against me."
"Sarah didn't create the logs."
"She created everything else."
"Like the bracelet?"
Valerie looked away.
"I told you what happened."
David stepped closer.
"No. You gave me an excuse."
Her tears disappeared.
"You want the truth?"
"Yes."
"I hate her."
David waited.
"She walks around this house like she owns Leo."
"She takes care of him."
"She judges me."
"Maybe because you're giving her reasons."
Valerie laughed bitterly.
"There. That's what she wanted."
"What?"
"You choosing her."
"This isn't about Sarah."
"It has always been about Sarah."
"No."
David's voice became quiet.
"It's about my son."
Valerie's jaw tightened.
"Your son."
David heard it.
The resentment.
He had heard versions of it before.
He had ignored them.
He suddenly remembered a dinner six months earlier when Valerie said Leo would always make her second place in David's life.
David had laughed.
He thought she was joking.
She had not been.
"Why does he cry when you touch him?"
Valerie stared at him.
"He doesn't."
"I saw it."
"Babies cry."
"He panics when he hears metal."
Her face went blank.
That was the moment David knew.
Not because she confessed.
Because she did not ask what he meant.
A person who had no idea why a baby feared metal would ask questions.
Valerie simply stood there.
David walked away.
"Where are you going?"
"Upstairs."
"For what?"
He stopped.
She knew.
David looked back at her.
"My charger."
Valerie smiled slowly.
"Your charger is in the bedroom."
"I have another one."
"Where?"
David did not answer.
He climbed the stairs.
Valerie followed.
He walked toward the cleaning cabinet.
Her footsteps stopped.
David turned.
Valerie stood ten feet away.
"What are you doing?"
"Looking for something."
"In Sarah's cabinet?"
"Yes."
"What?"
David opened the door.
Cleaning bottles.
Folded cloths.
A small plastic basket.
No phone.
His stomach tightened.
Valerie smiled.
"Can't find it?"
David turned slowly.
"What?"
She stepped closer.
"Whatever Sarah told you would be there."
"You know about the phone."
Valerie laughed.
"She records everyone."
"Where is it?"
"I threw it away."
David's face changed.
"You had no right."
"It's my house."
"It was evidence."
Valerie's smile disappeared.
"Evidence of what?"
David said nothing.
She realized her mistake.
He stepped forward.
"What was on it?"
"Nothing."
"Then why throw it away?"
"Because I'm tired of being watched."
David studied her.
"Where did you throw it?"
Valerie folded her arms.
"Outside."
"Where?"
"The garbage."
David walked downstairs.
Valerie followed.
The kitchen trash was empty.
He went outside.
The large bins beside the garage had been collected that morning.
David stood staring at the empty containers.
Valerie came to the doorway.
"Too late."
David turned.
For a second, the mask was gone.
She looked pleased.
He walked back inside.
"Pack a bag."
Valerie laughed.
"What?"
"You're staying somewhere else tonight."
Her face hardened.
"You can't throw me out."
"I can ask you to leave."
"This is my home."
"It's mine."
"We're married."
"And my son is not coming back while you're here."
Valerie stared at him.
"You're serious."
"Completely."
She walked toward him.
"You will regret humiliating me."
"Probably."
"You think Sarah is innocent?"
"Right now I think she's the only person who tried to tell me the truth."
Valerie's eyes became cold.
"Then maybe you should ask why she knew where to put the camera."
David frowned.
"What does that mean?"
Valerie smiled again.
"Ask her about the basement."
David stared at her.
"What basement?"
"The locked room behind the wine cellar."
David's stomach dropped.
There was a small storage room there.
He had not opened it in years.
Valerie walked upstairs.
Twenty minutes later, she left with a suitcase.
David waited until her car disappeared through the gates.
Then he went downstairs.
The wine cellar smelled of cedar and cool stone.
At the back was an old wooden door.
Locked.
David searched the key cabinet.
No key.
He called Sarah.
"Did you ever go into the basement storage room?"
"No."
"Valerie says you did."
"She's lying."
"There's a locked door."
"I know."
"How?"
"Because I heard Leo crying near it once."
David stopped breathing.
"When?"
Sarah's voice became quiet.
"Two weeks ago."
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"I thought he was upstairs. Then I found him in the laundry room with Valerie five minutes later. I convinced myself I was mistaken."
David closed his eyes.
Sarah continued.
"What is behind that door?"
"I don't know."
He looked at the old lock.
Then he noticed something on the stone floor.
A pale blue plastic button.
He picked it up.
May you like
He recognized it.
It came from one of Leo's pajamas.
