Chapter 5
Grace sat beside me.
“She may have cloud backup.”
I looked at her.
“How do you know?”
“She uses an iPhone.”
“If she recorded normally, it may have uploaded depending on her settings.”
Hope.
Tiny.
But something.
Then Grace said:
“There may be another recording.”
“What?”
She looked uncomfortable.
“Henry’s baby monitor.”
Our upstairs monitor covered the hallway outside both children’s rooms.
It wasn’t pointed into the bathroom.
But it recorded motion and sound.
Automatically.
My heart began pounding.
We accessed the app.
The footage started at 2:06 p.m.
Diane walked upstairs carrying Nora.
At 2:09, bathroom water began running.
2:12, Michael appeared in the hallway.
I stared.
“What is he doing upstairs?”
Grace didn’t answer.
The video showed Michael stopping outside the bathroom.
Diane spoke from inside.
We couldn’t understand everything.
But one sentence was clear.
“Just leave it running.”
Michael replied:
“For how long?”
My blood turned cold.
Diane said:
“Long enough to prove the point.”
Then Michael walked downstairs.
I stopped the video.
I couldn’t breathe.
Grace whispered:
“Claire.”
“What point?”
We continued.
At 2:16, Diane left the bathroom.
No towel.
Nothing in her hands.
She walked into our bedroom.
The bathroom door remained partly closed.
Nora began crying.
Diane didn’t return.
Thirty-eight seconds.
Forty.
Fifty.
At fifty-seven seconds, Grace appeared from the other direction.
She stopped.
Turned toward the bathroom.
Ran inside.
Nine seconds later, she emerged holding Nora.
Then Diane appeared from my bedroom.
Not one second.
Not getting a towel.
Nearly a full minute away from the bathtub while my newborn daughter was inside it.
And Michael knew she intended to leave the camera running.
I called him again.
This time he answered.
“Where are you?”
“At home.”
“What point was your mother trying to prove?”
Silence.
“Claire—”
“I saw the monitor.”
Another silence.
Then:
“You’re misunderstanding.”
I closed my eyes.
“Explain it.”
He exhaled.
“Mom thought you were becoming too controlling with Nora.”
I couldn’t process the sentence.
“What?”
“She thinks you’ve been overprotective since the birth.”
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“So?”
“She wanted to show you babies are more resilient than you think.”
