Chapter 3 - MAY 14Daniel felt as though someone had punched him in the chest.
“What?”
Emily looked toward the hallway.
“Not here.”
They waited until Helen left.
Daniel watched her car disappear through the front gate.
Then he locked the doors.
He shut every curtain.
He checked the nursery.
Three cameras.
One hidden inside the smoke detector.
Another behind a decorative clock.
A third positioned behind a vent facing the hallway outside their bedroom.
Daniel placed them on the kitchen table.
“Someone has been watching us.”
Emily didn't answer.
“May 14.”
Her shoulders tightened.
“Tell me everything.”
Emily sat down.
“That morning I told Helen we didn't need her anymore.”
“Why?”
“Because she scared me.”
“How?”
“She knew things.”
“What things?”
“She knew your flight schedule before I told her.”
Daniel frowned.
“She knew when Noah's doctor appointments were.”
Emily's voice grew quieter.
“She knew my mother used to call me Emmy.”
Daniel stopped.
Margaret had been dead for six years.
Emily rarely discussed her.
“How would Helen know that?”
Emily stared at the floor.
“She took care of my mother.”
Daniel felt another piece fall into place.
“What?”
“During her final year.”
Daniel had known Margaret had a private nurse.
He had never realized that nurse was Helen.
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“I didn't remember her at first.”
Emily swallowed.
“My mother had so many nurses.”
“When did you realize?”
“May 14.”
That morning, Emily confronted Helen.
She told her to leave.
Helen refused.
Emily threatened to call Daniel.
Helen laughed.
Then she showed Emily photographs.
Daniel traveling.
Daniel outside hotels.
Daniel meeting clients.
Someone had been following him.
One photograph showed Daniel hugging a female colleague.
The angle made the innocent embrace look intimate.
Daniel shook his head.
“That's Rebecca.”
“I know.”
“Then why—”
“That wasn't what scared me.”
Emily stood.
She walked to the kitchen cabinet beneath the sink.
She reached behind cleaning bottles and removed a brown envelope taped beneath the countertop.
Daniel stared.
Inside were photographs.
The last picture stopped his heart.
Noah.
Sleeping inside the nursery.
Photographed through the window.
From outside.
At night.
Across the bottom, handwritten in red ink:
ACCIDENTS HAPPEN TO BABIES EVERY DAY.
Daniel's knuckles turned white.
“She threatened Noah?”
Emily began crying.
“She told me if I contacted police…”
Her voice broke.
“…our baby would disappear.”
Daniel immediately grabbed his phone.
“I'm calling Reed.”
Detective Marcus Reed had been Daniel's friend since college.
Emily grabbed his arm.
“Wait.”
“No.”
“Daniel—”
“No one threatens my son.”
Before he could dial, the phone rang.
UNKNOWN CALLER.
Daniel answered.
“Who is this?”
Silence.
Then a digitally distorted voice.
“Do not call the police yet.”
Daniel's eyes narrowed.
“You sent the videos?”
“If police arrive now, you'll lose everything.”
“What everything?”
“The evidence.”
“Evidence of what?”
“Helen isn't working alone.”
The call ended.
Daniel tried calling back.
Blocked.
Emily stared at him.
“What did they say?”
Before Daniel could answer—
The lights went out.
Complete darkness swallowed the house.
Noah began screaming upstairs.
Daniel grabbed his phone flashlight.
“Stay here.”
He ran toward the stairs.
Halfway up—
CRASH.
Glass shattered downstairs.
Emily screamed.
Daniel turned.
The kitchen's back door stood open.
Wind blew rain across the floor.
Someone had entered.
Daniel grabbed the fireplace poker.
He searched the living room.
Nothing.
Kitchen.
Nothing.
Laundry room.
Empty.
Then he saw the table.
The envelope of photographs was gone.
In its place sat a silver key.
Attached to it was a faded tag.
ST. MATTHEW'S STORAGE.
UNIT 214.
Daniel held it up.
Emily stared.
Something changed in her face.
“What?”
Daniel asked.
“My mother had a storage unit there.”
Daniel looked at the key.
“Your mother died six years ago.”
Emily nodded.
May you like
Then whispered:
“And Helen was the only person besides me who knew about it.”
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