Chapter 1
My housekeeper called me during a business trip and whispered, “Sir, come home now. Your wife unplugged every camera in the house, and I think she’s doing something to your four-year-old daughter.”
I was in Boston, three days into a weeklong trip, when Maria called from a number I didn’t recognize.
She had worked in our Atlanta home for six years and had never called me directly before.
“Maria, what’s wrong?”
Her voice was shaking.
“Please don’t call Mrs. Lauren.”
I stood up from the hotel desk.
“Why?”
“Because she cannot know I told you.”
My stomach tightened.
“Where’s Sophie?”
Maria went silent for a second.
Then she whispered, “In her bedroom.”
I immediately opened the security app on my phone.
Every camera showed OFFLINE.
Living room.
Hallway.
Kitchen.
Sophie’s playroom.
All of them.
“When did this happen?”
“The morning after you left.”
I called my wife.
Lauren answered casually.
“Hey, babe. How’s Boston?”
“Why are the cameras disconnected?”
She laughed.
“The system was glitching, so I unplugged it.”
“Where’s Sophie?”
“She’s taking a nap.”
I heard something faint behind her.
A child coughing.
Then Lauren walked somewhere quieter.
“She’s been sick.”
“You never told me.”
“It’s nothing serious.”
I was already throwing clothes into my suitcase.
Then Maria sent me a photograph.
On Sophie’s nightstand was a small bottle with the label peeled off and a plastic medicine syringe beside it.
I called Maria back.
“What is that?”
“I don’t know,” she whispered.
“But Mrs. Lauren makes Sophie drink it every morning and every night.”
My hands started shaking.
“For how long?”
“Since the day you left.”
Then Maria said the words that made me forget how to breathe.
“Yesterday Sophie begged me not to let her drink it because she said it makes her sleep and she wakes up hurting.”
I booked the first flight home.
Before I could leave the hotel, Maria called one more time.
This time she was crying.
“Sir, hurry.”
“What happened?”
May you like
“I found the camera Mrs. Lauren forgot to unplug.”
And then a video appeared on my phone.
