Chapter 5 - The Backup Camera
Julian read the threat twice.
“This is Sarah’s doing,” he said.
Elena stared at him.
“Why would she threaten herself?”
“To frighten you into trusting her.”
Evelyn nodded.
“Lawyers create conflict when they believe there is money in it.”
The explanation was absurd, yet they presented it with rehearsed confidence.
Elena placed the photograph back inside the envelope.
“I need to call her.”
Julian blocked the doorway.
“No.”
“She may be in danger.”
“She is the danger.”
“Move.”
He did not.
Evelyn gently touched Elena’s arm.
“Think about the baby. Stress could send you into labor.”
Elena pulled away.
“You both keep using my daughter as a weapon.”
Julian’s face darkened.
“We are trying to protect our family.”
“My father was my family.”
“He’s dead.”
The words struck the room like a slap.
Julian seemed surprised by his own cruelty, but he did not apologize.
Elena’s phone vibrated.
Sarah had sent a message.
I’m safe. Copies secured. Police notified. Act normal until I contact you.
Elena locked the screen before Julian could see it.
“I’m tired,” she said.
Julian followed her upstairs.
He stood in the bedroom doorway while Elena changed clothes in the bathroom. When she emerged, he had placed her phone on the nightstand.
“I turned off location sharing,” Elena said.
“I turned it back on.”
“You don’t have permission.”
“You’re my wife.”
The phrase had become his answer to everything.
Not an expression of love.
A declaration of ownership.
Elena climbed into bed and turned away from him.
Julian lay beside her, but his breathing remained alert long after midnight.
At two in the morning, Elena heard him leave.
She waited ten minutes before getting up.
Soft voices drifted from the kitchen.
She descended the rear staircase and stopped behind the pantry door.
Julian stood beneath the visible security camera with a ladder. Evelyn held a flashlight.
“The recorder isn’t in the panel,” Julian whispered.
“Sarah has it.”
“Then why are we still here?”
“Thomas never trusted a single recording system. If there was one camera, there may be another.”
Julian climbed the ladder and removed the wall camera.
Evelyn inspected the wires.
“This one only sends footage to your account?”
“Yes.”
“No local storage?”
“No.”
“Destroy it anyway.”
Julian dropped the camera into the sink and smashed it with a metal tenderizer.
Elena backed away.
Her father had installed the original security system years earlier. After her mother died, he became meticulous about protecting the property.
Julian had replaced most of it, but perhaps he had missed something.
Elena returned upstairs and opened an old household-maintenance app on her phone. Thomas had shared access with her when she was in college, mainly so she could adjust the thermostat during visits.
The app still displayed several disconnected devices.
Front gate.
Study window.
Basement motion sensor.
Kitchen secondary feed.
Elena’s pulse quickened.
She tapped the kitchen feed.
The screen remained black for several seconds.
Then a live image appeared.
Julian and Evelyn stood in the kitchen, framed from above the pantry.
The backup camera was hidden inside the decorative molding.
It had no sound on the live feed, but an icon indicated local audio recording.
Thomas had kept it separate from the main system.
Elena selected storage history.
The files were being uploaded to a private server, but the app requested a four-digit access code.
She tried her birthday.
Incorrect.
Her father’s birthday.
Incorrect.
Her mother’s death date.
Incorrect.
Downstairs, a drawer slammed.
Elena had only seconds.
She looked at the final disconnected device listed in the app.
Nursery window.
Thomas had labeled Elena’s childhood bedroom “Nursery” even after she became an adult.
She entered the year she was born.
The archive opened.
Hundreds of recordings appeared.
The most recent file had been created two minutes earlier. Elena pressed it.
Julian’s voice came through clearly.
“If she doesn’t sign tomorrow, I’ll make her.”
Evelyn replied, “You’re losing control.”
“I have control.”
“You nearly exposed us at the hospital.”
“I said I can handle my wife.”
“She’s Thomas’s daughter. He underestimated her mother once, and it nearly ruined all of us.”
“What did her mother know?”
“Enough to get herself killed.”
Elena stopped breathing.
Julian went silent on the recording.
“What did you say?”
Evelyn looked toward the camera she believed he had destroyed.
“I said grief killed her.”
“No. You didn’t.”
Evelyn stepped closer to her son.
“Forget it.”
Julian grabbed her wrist.
“Did Elena’s mother know about Blackridge?”
Evelyn pulled free.
“She found something she wasn’t supposed to find.”
“And then she died in a car accident.”
“It was raining.”
“You told me her brakes failed.”
“I told you what you needed to hear.”
Elena saved the recording to her phone.
Her hands shook so badly that she nearly dropped it.
The bedroom door opened behind her.
Julian stood in the doorway.
May you like
His gaze moved from Elena’s face to the glowing screen.
“What are you watching?”
