Chapter 1
I kept losing cash from my bedroom, so I hid a camera beside the dresser. What I saw on the recording made me race home from work before my mother-in-law could leave the house.
For almost two months, money had been disappearing from the envelope I kept in my bedside drawer.
First it was $200.
Then $500.
Last Friday, nearly $1,800 vanished.
My husband, Michael, kept saying, “Emily, maybe you spent it and forgot.”
“I don’t forget eighteen hundred dollars,” I told him.
He rolled his eyes and walked away.
So the next morning, before leaving for work, I placed a tiny camera facing our bedroom door.
At 1:17 that afternoon, my phone sent me a motion alert.
I opened the live feed under my desk.
My mother-in-law, Linda, quietly entered my bedroom.
She looked over her shoulder, shut the door, and went straight to my drawer.
My hands started shaking.
She pulled out my cash envelope and stuffed several bills into her purse.
But then she opened the drawer underneath it.
The drawer I never wanted anyone touching.
Linda suddenly stopped.
She reached inside and pulled out a small sealed box I had hidden beneath my sweaters.
Her face changed completely.
“Oh my God,” she whispered.
I grabbed my purse and drove home without even telling my boss.
When I burst through the front door, Linda was walking downstairs with her handbag.
“Give me my money.”
She stared at me calmly. “Excuse me?”
“I watched you steal it.”
Her face went white for half a second, then she shoved past me.
I grabbed her purse, and she grabbed my hair.
We slammed into the hallway table as I tried to pull the bag away from her.
“You’ve been stealing from me for months!” I screamed.
Linda slapped my arm and yelled, “Get your hands off me!”
Her purse fell open, and my cash scattered across the floor.
I pointed at it. “There’s your proof.”
But instead of looking embarrassed, Linda started smiling.
“You really want to talk about secrets, Emily?”
She reached into her coat pocket.
My stomach dropped when I saw the small box from my drawer in her hand.
“Give that back.”
“Oh, I will,” she whispered. “Right after Michael gets home and sees what his wife has been hiding from him.”
May you like
I lunged for it, but she stepped back and opened the box.
Then Linda stared at what was inside and said, “So my son still doesn’t know this child exists?”
