Chapter 1
I came home early and found my seven-month-old daughter screaming on the floor while my wife stood over her. Then our housekeeper whispered, “Please don’t believe what she tells you.”
I had left my office in Boston two hours early because my afternoon meeting was canceled.
The house was strangely quiet when I walked inside.
Then I heard my daughter Lily screaming upstairs.
Not crying.
Screaming.
I ran toward her nursery.
Our housekeeper, Maria, was kneeling on the floor with Lily pressed against her chest.
My wife, Claire, stood beside them shaking with anger.
“What happened?” I shouted.
Claire pointed at Maria.
“She dropped her.”
Maria’s face went white.
“No, Mr. Bennett—”
“Don’t lie!” Claire screamed.
I took Lily and checked her tiny arms and legs while she clung to my shirt.
My hands were shaking so badly I could barely hold her.
“How could you drop my daughter?” I asked Maria.
Tears filled her eyes.
“I didn’t.”
Claire grabbed my arm.
“Daniel, fire her right now.”
Maria suddenly looked at me.
“Please check the camera.”
Claire froze.
“What camera?”
Maria pointed toward the baby monitor above Lily’s crib.
My wife laughed nervously.
“That thing hasn’t recorded anything in months.”
But I remembered replacing the memory card three days earlier.
I opened the security app on my phone.
Claire stepped closer.
“Daniel, you don’t need to see this.”
I pulled away from her.
The video loaded.
For several seconds, Lily was sitting peacefully on the nursery rug.
Then Claire walked into the room.
She looked toward the hallway.
She picked up my daughter.
May you like
And what she did next made Maria cover her mouth and start crying.
But before I could play another second, Claire grabbed my phone and screamed, “You have no idea what that baby has done to my life!”
