Chapter 7 - Emily's Voice
Anna locked the bedroom door.
“What do you mean, Mama hide?”
He pointed at the dinosaur.
“Mama.”
Maybe he meant Vanessa. Maybe he had started calling her Mama.
Anna tucked him under the blanket, waited until he slept, then inserted the card into her laptop.
There were five video files.
The first showed the nursery from nearly two years earlier.
Emily Carter sat in the rocking chair holding baby Leo.
Anna recognized her from family photographs: soft brown hair, tired eyes, easy smile.
Emily looked directly into the hidden camera.
“If Richard ever finds this, he’s going to think I’ve lost my mind.”
“But if something happens to me, I need someone to know I wasn’t imagining it.”
She described strange medication bottles, missing documents, financial forms she had never signed.
Then she said a name.
“Vanessa Hale.”
Anna froze.
Vanessa’s maiden name.
Emily explained that Vanessa had worked as a private physical therapist after Emily’s car accident. She had gained access to the house months before Emily died.
“I caught her in Richard’s office twice. She said she was looking for a bathroom. We have seven bathrooms.”
Anna swallowed.
In the second file, Emily whispered that she believed someone was tampering with her sleep medication.
The third showed Vanessa entering the nursery at night and searching drawers.
The fourth showed her photographing Richard’s financial records.
The fifth file began yesterday.
Vanessa stood beside the rocking chair, talking on the phone.
“Yes, he changed the will,” she said.
Anna leaned closer.
Vanessa paced.
“No. Leo gets the trust. I get nothing if Richard dies first.”
A pause.
Then Vanessa said something that turned Anna’s stomach.
“I’m working on it.”
The file ended.
Anna stared at the black screen.
Behind her, the bedroom doorknob moved.
May you like
Slowly.
Someone was trying to get in.
