Chapter 3 - The Camera Above the Bookshelf
Surgery lasted three hours.
My tibia was fractured in two places.
My ankle was severely damaged.
My shoulder was dislocated.
I had bruising across my abdomen and back.
The doctor told me I was lucky.
I hated that word.
Lucky.
But I understood what he meant.
I was alive.
By the time I woke properly, sunlight was beginning to appear through the hospital blinds.
My father was sitting beside the bed.
He had removed his tie.
His jacket hung across a chair.
For twenty years, I imagined what seeing him again might feel like.
Anger.
Hatred.
Indifference.
I never imagined I would be too exhausted for any of them.
“Did they arrest Ryan?”
I asked.
“Not yet.”
My father said.
My chest tightened.
“Why?”
“They’re reviewing evidence.”
“The house?”
“Secured.”
“Madeline?”
“Still being interviewed.”
I closed my eyes.
“The cameras.”
“I know.”
My father leaned forward.
“The police recovered the local server.”
I opened my eyes again.
“Did it record the stairs?”
“Yes.”
My heartbeat accelerated.
“Everything?”
His jaw tightened.
“Enough.”
That answer told me he had watched it.
I looked away.
“I’m sorry you saw that.”
My father’s face changed.
“Elena.”
“I’m sorry I wasn’t there twenty years earlier.”
That was not a conversation I was ready for.
“Not now.”
I whispered.
He nodded.
“Whenever you’re ready.”
An hour later, Detective Sarah Mitchell entered.
She introduced herself and asked permission to record our conversation.
I agreed.
She told me investigators had recovered footage from the living room camera.
It showed Ryan dragging me through the downstairs hallway after my fall.
It showed him opening the basement door.
It showed him pushing me inside.
It showed him closing and locking the door.
The upstairs camera had a partial view of the staircase.
The angle was not perfect.
But the audio was clear.
Ryan shouting.
My scream.
Madeline saying.
“Ryan, stop.”
Then the fall.
The detective paused.
“There’s something else.”
“What?”
“The camera recorded conversation before you arrived.”
I looked at her.
“What conversation?”
She opened a notebook.
“Your husband and Ms. Brooks were discussing a development project.”
“That’s not surprising.”
“No.”
Mitchell said.
“But this part is.”
She read from her notes.
Madeline told Ryan her father would approve the zoning exception only after Elena Carter was removed from financial control of the company.
I stopped breathing.
“What?”
Mitchell continued.
“Your husband answered.”
“Give me one more week.”
“After the anniversary, Elena won’t control anything.”
I stared at her.
May you like
My broken leg suddenly felt like only one piece of the night.
Ryan had expected something to happen to me before I ever walked through that bedroom door.
