Chapter 4: The Cloud Backup
The red silk blouse seemed to suffocate Elena as she struggled to process the heavy atmosphere in the room. She shifted Maya to her other arm, glaring at Clara who now sat slumped against the white baseboard, defeated.
"Get out," David said, his voice devoid of any emotion. It was the tone he used right before cutting a multi-million-dollar business deal, cold and absolute. "Pack your things, leave the keys on the kitchen counter, and never come within a mile of this house again."
Clara nodded slowly, pushing herself up from the floor with trembling legs. She didn't look at either of them as she hurried past David toward the door, her grey scrub top damp with sweat. The moment the nursery door clicked shut behind her, Elena exhaled a long, shaky breath and sank into the rocking chair by the crib.
"I can't believe we trusted her," Elena murmured, pressing a gentle kiss to Maya's forehead where the faint red mark was already fading. "She's unstable, David. We need to call the agency and make sure she never works around children again."
David didn't answer. He was still standing by the wall, staring fixedly at the plastic white casing of the baby monitor. His phone was clutched tightly in his right hand, the screen glowing with a file transfer progress bar that was creeping past ninety-eight percent.
"David? Did you hear me?" Elena asked, looking up with a frown.
"The cloud server," David said softly, his eyes glued to the small screen. "It syncs automatically every time the Wi-Fi reconnects. Even if someone deletes the local files, the server keeps a master log of every motion detection event for the past year."
Elena’s heart skipped a beat. She stood up slowly, holding the baby close.
"What are you talking about? What master log?"
David didn't look at her. The progress bar hit one hundred percent, and a folder containing hundreds of video clips popped up on his phone. He tapped on the most recent file, the one timestamped twenty minutes ago, right before Clara allegedly dropped the baby.
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"I want to see what really happened before Clara came into the room," David said, his thumb hovering over the play button.
Elena took a step forward, peering over his shoulder as the video began to play on the small screen, revealing an empty nursery bathed in afternoon light—and then, a shadow moving past the crib that neither of them remembered being there.
