Chapter 15 - What Ryan Kept
The envelope held a memory card. Investigators had collected it as evidence and asked Ryan, through his attorney, to identify it. He claimed it was the unedited recording from the phone he'd positioned on the counter.
"The kitchen camera is already enough to show the assault," I told Tessa.
"This may show why they wanted it," she said.
The phone recording started early, with Diane adjusting her hair in the reflection of the microwave. She asked whether the frame made her look frightened.
"Don't overdo it," Ryan said from behind the phone.
"I'm not the one who needs acting lessons."
I watched my husband walk into view. He touched his mother's shoulder.
"If she doesn't swing back, we don't have anything."
Diane gave a small laugh. "I'll make sure she does."
I pressed pause. No camera angle could make those words into anything other than what they were.
"Was he protecting himself by saving a copy?" I asked.
"Maybe," Tessa said. "Or maybe he wanted leverage over his mother. We can't know without asking."
For the first time, I understood how much effort I'd spent turning Ryan into a better man inside my own head. I had invented reasons for his silence because the truth was unbearable.
The phone buzzed again. This time it was my neighbor, Mrs. Alvarez.
"Lena, I'm looking across the street. There's a white van parked in your driveway. Two men are at your back gate."
I went still.
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Nobody was supposed to be at my house.
And the security app on my phone showed the kitchen camera had just gone offline.
