Chapter 2
The memory card felt almost weightless.
But Caroline stared at it as if my daughter had handed me a bomb.
“Where did she get that?” she asked.
Her voice was calm, but her eyes were not.
I looked down at Lily.
She had both arms locked around my neck.
“What is this, bug?”
She whispered, “Bear.”
My breath caught.
Hannah’s bear.
Before she died, Hannah bought Lily a stuffed bear with a nanny camera hidden inside.
Not because she distrusted anyone.
Because chemo left her too weak to keep running to the nursery, and she wanted to check on Lily from bed.
After Hannah passed, the bear stayed on Lily’s shelf.
I had forgotten it recorded to a memory card.
Caroline hadn’t.
“Daniel,” Caroline said carefully, “give it to me.”
I stood with Lily in my arms.
“Why?”
“It’s probably from one of her toys.”
“Then why do you want it?”
Her mouth tightened.
“She has been lying.”
Lily flinched.
I felt it.
That tiny movement told me more than any answer.
I carried Lily to the kitchen and set her on the counter.
“Stay right here.”
She grabbed my sleeve.
“Daddy, don’t be mad.”
“I’m not mad at you.”
Caroline followed us.
“Daniel, she is manipulating you.”
“She is four.”
“She knows how to get attention.”
I pulled my laptop from my work bag.
Caroline moved closer.
I looked up.
“Don’t.”
She stopped.
For the first time since I had known her, she looked cornered.
I plugged the card into an adapter.
Folders appeared.
Dates.
Times.
Dozens of clips.
My stomach sank.
I opened the most recent file.
The camera angle was low, from Lily’s bedroom shelf.
Caroline stood over Lily, who sat on the rug holding her rabbit.
“Say it again,” Caroline ordered.
Lily whispered, “I’m happy you’re marrying Daddy.”
“Louder.”
“I’m happy you’re marrying Daddy.”
“Smile.”
Lily smiled.
It was the smile I had been seeing for weeks.
Tiny.
Careful.
Terrified.
Caroline crouched.
“If you cry at the wedding, your father will think you don’t love me.”
“I do love you.”
“No,” Caroline said. “You love making people feel sorry for you.”
I paused the video.
My hands were shaking.
Caroline said, “You don’t know the context.”
I turned slowly.
“What context makes that okay?”
She swallowed.
“You let Hannah haunt this house.”
My dead wife’s name came out of her mouth like an accusation.
“You do not talk about Hannah.”
“She is gone, Daniel.”
Lily covered her ears.
Caroline pointed at her.
“And that child needs to stop using grief to control you.”
Something in me snapped.
“She is a child grieving her mother.”
“And I am the woman trying to raise her.”
“No,” I said. “You are the woman putting her in a closet.”
Caroline slapped me.
The sound cracked through the kitchen.
Lily screamed.
Caroline’s hand flew to her own mouth like even she hadn’t expected it.
“Daniel, I—”
I touched my cheek.
Then I looked at Lily.
Her face told me everything.
She had seen that hand before.
“Did she hit you?” I asked.
Lily’s eyes filled.
Caroline snapped, “Do not answer that.”
I turned on her.
“Get out.”
“This is my home too.”
“This is Hannah’s home. Lily’s home. My home. Not yours anymore.”
The front door opened before she could answer.
My mother walked in carrying a casserole dish under foil.
“Daniel? Caroline called me earlier and said—”
She stopped.
She saw my cheek.
Lily crying.
Caroline pale.
The laptop open.
“What happened?”
Caroline began sobbing instantly.
“He attacked me.”
Lily shouted, “No!”
The room froze.
My mother set the dish down.
Lily almost never shouted.
She slid off the counter and ran to my mother.
“Grandma, she puts me in the dark room.”
My mother’s face changed.
“What dark room?”
Lily pointed toward the laundry room.
I turned the laptop toward my mother and pressed play.
She watched clip after clip.
Caroline scolding Lily for smiling wrong.
Caroline taking away her dinner because “good girls don’t ask twice.”
Caroline pushing her into the utility closet and setting a timer.
Caroline whispering, “If you tell Daddy, he’ll send you away because nobody wants difficult little girls.”
My mother began crying.
Caroline said, “Patricia, you know children exaggerate.”
My mother looked at her with disgust.
“I trusted you with my granddaughter.”
Caroline’s tears disappeared.
“You all made me compete with a dead woman and a spoiled child.”
The room went dead silent.
My mother took out her phone.
“I’m calling the police.”
Caroline grabbed her purse.
“You’ll regret this.”
She started toward the door.
Then Lily whispered, “Daddy.”
I turned.
May you like
She was pointing at Caroline’s purse.
“She has Mommy’s blue box.”
