Chapter 3
I forgot how to breathe.
David’s hands dropped from his mother’s shoulders.
“What did you just say?”
Rebecca stared at Ethan.
Then at me.
“I need to show you.”
Linda screamed, “She’s lying!”
Rebecca flinched.
Linda pointed at her.
“You’ve always been a liar.”
“You asked me to help you.”
“I asked you to talk sense into my son.”
“You asked me to help you get Rachel out of this house.”
David turned toward Linda.
“Mom.”
She ignored him.
Rebecca held up the memory card.
“You gave me this because you wanted me to edit the footage.”
My stomach twisted.
“What footage?”
Rebecca looked ashamed.
“I do video work now. Marketing. Real estate. Small businesses. Linda knew that.”
David’s voice dropped.
“Mom, what footage?”
Rebecca answered for her.
“Security camera clips.”
I looked around the house.
“We don’t have cameras inside.”
Linda said nothing.
Rebecca pointed toward the bookshelf in the living room.
“There.”
David walked over.
He moved a framed family photo.
Behind it was a tiny black lens.
My skin went cold.
I had lived in that house for four years.
I had walked around in pajamas.
I had argued with my husband.
I had cried.
I had disciplined my child.
And my mother-in-law had apparently been recording us.
David pulled the device from the shelf.
“What the hell is this?”
Linda folded her arms.
“It was for safety.”
“You installed a camera in my house?”
“You gave me a key.”
“That is not permission to install cameras.”
She looked offended.
“You’re acting like I’m some stranger.”
I stepped toward her.
“You are worse than a stranger.”
David looked at me.
“Rachel.”
I raised my hand.
“No. Don’t correct my tone.”
He went silent.
I pointed at Rebecca.
“Show me the footage.”
Rebecca hesitated.
“There are a lot of clips.”
“Show me.”
She pulled out her laptop.
We sat at the kitchen table.
Linda stayed standing.
She looked like she wanted to leave.
David blocked the hallway.
“You’re not going anywhere.”
For once, his anger was pointed in the right direction.
Rebecca inserted the memory card.
A folder appeared.
There were twenty-three videos.
Dates going back almost four months.
I felt sick.
Rebecca clicked the first one.
The living room appeared.
Ethan was sitting on the carpet doing homework.
Linda stood behind him.
The date was from three weeks earlier.
I had been working.
“Read it again,” Linda said in the video.
“I don’t know that word.”
“Then you’re not trying.”
“I am.”
She grabbed his worksheet.
“You’re lazy like your mother.”
David whispered, “Jesus.”
I closed my eyes.
Ethan buried his face against my side.
“Did she say that a lot?”
He nodded.
I forced myself to stay calm.
Rebecca opened another clip.
Ethan was crying near the kitchen table.
Linda stood over him holding a plate.
“You don’t leave until you finish.”
“I’m full.”
“I don’t care.”
“My tummy hurts.”
“You think your mother gets to waste David’s money and now you waste food too?”
The video continued.
Ethan tried to stand.
Linda shoved him back into the chair.
Not violently enough to knock him down.
But hard enough.
David covered his mouth.
I couldn’t look at him.
Rebecca clicked another.
This time Linda was alone in the living room, speaking on the phone.
“Yes, he’s getting attached to me.”
Pause.
“No, Rachel doesn’t notice anything.”
Pause.
“She’s barely home.”
My throat tightened.
Linda rushed forward.
“Turn that off.”
David stepped between her and the laptop.
“Who were you talking to?”
She didn’t answer.
Rebecca clicked another file.
The date was two days ago.
Linda was standing in our kitchen.
Rebecca was with her.
Rebecca’s recorded voice said, “I don’t think David wants this.”
Linda replied, “David doesn’t know what he wants.”
“And Rachel?”
“She’ll be gone soon.”
“How?”
Linda smiled.
“People believe mothers until you show them something ugly.”
My hands went numb.
Rebecca paused the video.
“That’s when she told me she needed me to edit clips together.”
“Edit what?”
“She wanted clips of you yelling.”
I stared at her.
“I yell sometimes.”
Rebecca nodded.
“She wanted those pieces cut together without context.”
David sat down slowly.
“Oh my God.”
Rebecca continued.
“She said if she could show you as unstable, David would finally leave.”
Linda snapped, “That is not what I said.”
Rebecca clicked play.
Linda’s recorded voice filled the room.
“I need him to understand that woman is not safe around my grandson.”
I looked at David.
He was staring at the screen.
His face looked destroyed.
But my sympathy was gone.
He had brought Linda into our lives.
He had defended her every time I complained.
Every time she criticized my cooking.
Every time she rearranged my kitchen.
Every time she called me selfish for working.
Every time she told Ethan that Mommy cared more about patients than him.
I had told David.
Again and again.
And David always said the same thing.
“She’s just trying to help.”
Now I knew exactly how expensive those words had been.
Rebecca opened another video.
It was from that afternoon.
Linda positioned the camera.
Then she called Rebecca.
“We’ll do it tonight.”
Rebecca’s recorded voice said, “I’m not comfortable with this.”
“You want David to keep living like this?”
“I don’t even know if he wants me back.”
“He will.”
“And the child?”
Linda looked directly toward the hidden camera.
“He’s the easiest part.”
Ethan started shaking.
I closed the laptop.
Enough.
I stood.
Linda spoke quickly.
“She took that out of context.”
I stared at her.
“Out of context?”
“Yes.”
“You locked my son in a storage room.”
“He needed discipline.”
“You secretly recorded my family.”
“To protect my grandson.”
“You coached him to say he was afraid of me.”
“He is afraid of you.”
Ethan screamed, “No, I’m not!”
His voice tore through the kitchen.
Everyone went silent.
He ran behind me.
Linda stared at him.
Something cold entered her expression.
Not grandmotherly disappointment.
Anger.
At a six-year-old.
Because he had ruined her story.
I crouched.
“You never have to talk to her again.”
Linda’s mouth opened.
I stood and faced her.
“You heard me.”
“You can’t keep my grandson from me.”
“Watch me.”
David finally spoke.
“Rachel, she’s right about one thing.”
I turned slowly.
His mother looked relieved.
Then David continued.
“We need to call the police.”
Linda’s relief vanished.
“David.”
He held up the tiny camera.
“You recorded inside our house without permission. You locked Ethan in a room. You tried to create evidence against Rachel.”
“I am your mother.”
“And he is my son.”
Her face changed.
It wasn’t fear this time.
It was rage.
“You’re choosing her?”
David looked at me.
Then Ethan.
“No.”
My heart sank.
He continued.
“I’m choosing my child.”
Linda stared at him.
“You ungrateful little bastard.”
Ethan flinched.
I took his hand.
David pulled out his phone.
Linda rushed toward him.
“Don’t you dare.”
He stepped away.
“I’m calling.”
She reached for his phone.
Rebecca moved between them.
“Stop.”
Linda shoved Rebecca.
Rebecca hit the counter.
I grabbed Linda’s wrist before she could move again.
“Enough.”
Linda looked down at my hand.
“Take your hand off me.”
“Then stop touching people.”
David dialed.
Linda’s entire posture changed.
Her shoulders dropped.
Her face softened.
And suddenly she began to cry.
It was almost impressive.
“David, please.”
He stared at her.
“I was trying to save you.”
“From what?”
She pointed at me.
“From her.”
I felt Ethan’s fingers tighten around mine.
David shook his head.
“You locked my son in a room.”
“He was never in danger.”
“He thought he was staying there all night!”
“He needed to understand consequences.”
“No.”
David’s voice cracked.
“You need to understand consequences.”
Linda’s tears stopped.
Just like that.
Her gaze moved to me.
“You think you won.”
I said nothing.
She stepped closer.
“You have no idea what your husband has done.”
David froze.
My stomach dropped.
“Mom.”
Linda smiled.
There it was again.
That tiny smile.
She had another weapon.
I looked at David.
“What is she talking about?”
“Nothing.”
Linda laughed.
“Ask him where eighty thousand dollars went.”
Silence.
I turned toward my husband.
“What?”
David closed his eyes.
Rebecca whispered, “Oh, no.”
I stared at him.
“What eighty thousand dollars?”
He didn’t answer.
I stepped closer.
“David.”
His voice was barely audible.
“From our savings.”
I felt the floor disappear under me.
“Our savings?”
“I can explain.”
“That account had money for Ethan’s school.”
“I know.”
“And the house repairs.”
“I know.”
“And my father’s inheritance.”
He looked at me.
“I know.”
My hands began shaking again.
“Where is it?”
Linda answered.
“He gave it to me.”
I stared at her.
She smiled through the tears she had forgotten to continue crying.
“I told you this house existed because of my son.”
I looked at David.
“Tell me she’s lying.”
He couldn’t.
The police dispatcher answered through his phone.
“911. What’s your emergency?”
No one spoke.
I took the phone from David.
“My six-year-old son was locked in a storage room by his grandmother.”
May you like
Linda’s smile disappeared.
“And,” I added, staring at my husband, “I think I just discovered my family has been hiding a lot more from me.”
