Chapter 5: The Hidden Footage
Elena walked into the master bedroom, locking the heavy wooden door behind her. Her hands trembled slightly as she pulled her laptop from its sleeve on the desk and booted it up. The startup chime felt deafeningly loud in the quiet house. She inserted the micro-SD card into a USB adapter and plugged it into the side of the computer.
A folder popped up instantly on the screen, labeled simply: LOG_BK_09.
She clicked it open. Inside were dozens of short video clips, timestamped consecutively over the past forty-eight hours. Her breath caught in her throat. The camera wasn't just monitoring the nursery for safety; it had been recording a wide-angle view of every interaction between Elena, David, and anyone who entered the room.
Elena clicked on the clip timestamped five minutes before Sarah dropped the baby yesterday.
The video loaded on the screen. The room was bright and quiet. Sarah was standing by the dresser, folding pink onesies. Suddenly, the door swung open, and David entered the frame. He didn't look angry; he looked calculating. He walked up to Sarah, his back turned slightly to the camera, and spoke in a low murmur. Elena leaned closer to the laptop speakers, turning the volume to maximum.
"...just make sure it looks like an accident," David's voice hissed through the tiny speakers. "I need her out of the house. If Elena thinks the staff is incompetent, she'll agree to send her to my mother's place upstate for the summer. Then we can settle the trust fund transfer without interference."
Sarah turned around, her face pale, holding Lily in her arms. "I won't do it, Mr. Miller. I told you, I'm done with this. You're using your own kid—"
"You signed the NDA," David interrupted, stepping into her personal space with a menacing posture. "You do what I say, or I make sure you never work in healthcare again. Drop her on the rug. Just enough to scare my wife into submission."
On the screen, Sarah panicked, shifting her weight awkwardly as David stepped toward her aggressively. In her confusion, she tripped over her own shoe, lost her balance, and Lily slipped from her arms, hitting the floor with a terrifying thud just as Elena came rushing down the hallway.
Elena slammed the laptop shut, her vision blurring with hot, angry tears. The betrayal cut deeper than any physical blow. David hadn't just lost his temper yesterday; he had orchestrated the entire terrifying scene. He had used their infant daughter as a pawn in a cold, calculated financial game to manipulate Elena into leaving the house.
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Downstairs, a door creaked open.
"El?" David’s voice echoed up the stairwell, heavy and demanding. "Are you still up in the nursery?"
