Chapter 1 - THE GREEN LIGHT
“STAY AWAY FROM MY SON!”
The words tore out of me before I even understood what I had seen.
Noah was on the carpet beside the sofa, screaming. He was twelve months old, too young to explain pain, too young to understand why the woman who kissed his forehead in front of me had just kicked him hard enough to knock him into the corner of the coffee table.
Tessa lunged between them.
Vivienne shoved her aside.
“This was her fault!” Vivienne snapped.
I dropped to my knees and gathered Noah against my chest. He was trembling so hard I could feel it through my shirt.
“Tessa,” I said. “Call 911.”
Vivienne stared at me. “Elliot, are you serious? You’re going to believe the nanny over me?”
I looked up.
“Tessa isn’t his nanny.”
The room went quiet.
“Noah’s mother named her as his guardian if anything happened to me. Amelia trusted her with his life.”
For the first time, Vivienne looked scared.
But Tessa wasn’t watching her.
She was staring above the entryway arch.
A tiny green light blinked on the security camera.
Vivienne spun around.
“No.”
Then she ran toward the control cabinet.
I blocked her.
“Why do you need to turn it off?”
Her mouth opened, but nothing came out.
And then I remembered.
Three weeks earlier, she had insisted the indoor cameras made her feel watched. I had disconnected them myself.
Or I thought I had.
I pulled out my phone and opened the home-security app.
Vivienne reached for it.
“Elliot, don’t.”
Noah saw her move and buried his face against my chest, sobbing harder.
I looked at my son.
Then at the blinking green light.
“How many times?” I asked.
Vivienne’s face drained of color.
The archive loaded.
May you like
There were twenty-seven saved clips.
And the oldest one was dated the night before Amelia died.
