Claire set the tablet down on the nearest table, screen facing up.
The security footage was still playing on a loop.
Evelyn's voice, thin and clear through the small speaker.
*She won't say anything after this.
Children like her never do.*
Amanda moved first.
"That footage is out of context."
"Which part?" Claire said.
"The scissors?
Or the part where Evelyn tells you a six-year-old won't talk?"
"We were disciplining her.
That is notβ"
"You were cutting her hair while she cried and couldn't move." Claire's voice didn't rise.
It dropped.
"That is the context."
Evelyn hadn't spoken yet.
She was watching Claire the way someone watches a door they're deciding whether to lock.
"Where is Marcus?" Claire said.
The name landed in the room like something thrown.
Amanda's jaw tightened.
Evelyn's chin lifted slightly.
Neither of them answered.
"He has been missing for three days," Claire said.
"His daughter thinks he left because of something she did.
And the two of you are in here cutting that child's hair and telling her to stay quiet." She picked up the tablet.
"So I'm going to ask one more time.
Where is Marcus?"
"Marcus is handling personal matters," Evelyn said.
Her voice was smooth.
Practiced.
"He asked not to be disturbed."
"He asked you."
"He is my son."
"He is Lily's father." Claire looked at her steadily.
"And Lily is six years old and has been sitting in this house for three days believing she did something wrong."
Something moved across Evelyn's face.
Not guilt.
Something colder than that.
A calculation.
"You have always overstepped, Claire," Evelyn said quietly.
"From the very first day Marcus brought you into this family's life.
You were never part of this.
You were a convenience."
"Then it's a good thing I'm not here for your approval." Claire tucked the tablet under her arm.
"I'm here for Lily."
Amanda stepped forward.
"You can't take that footage anywhere.
That tablet belongs to this house.
You picked it up off our property."
"Noah brought it in from the hallway camera system," Claire said.
"Which means it was already recording.
Which means it already exists." She looked at Amanda.
"You can call your lawyer.
I'll wait."
Amanda's mouth opened.
Closed.
Evelyn's eyes moved to the tablet.
For the first time, something in her posture shifted.
Not much.
Just enough.
"You don't understand what you're getting involved in," Evelyn said.
"Then explain it to me."
Silence.
Claire walked to the glass door and pushed it open.
She stopped with one hand on the frame and looked back.
"If Marcus contacts you before he contacts me," she said, "you tell him his daughter asked about him four times today.
You tell him she thinks it's her fault he's gone." She paused.
"And you tell him I have the footage."
She let the door close behind her.
In the hallway, Noah was sitting on the floor with Lily, a paper plate with a slice of chocolate cake balanced between them.
Lily had a small smear of frosting on her chin.
She looked up when Claire came out.
"Is Daddy coming back?" Lily asked.
Claire sat down on the floor beside her.
"I'm going to find him," she said.
"Okay?
That's my job right now."
Lily considered this with the gravity only a six-year-old can manage.
Then she held out the fork with a piece of cake on it.
Claire took it.
Noah caught her eye over Lily's head.
He didn't say anything.
He didn't need to.
He pulled his phone from his pocket and held it up so only Claire could see the screen.
There was a text message.
Unknown number.
Sent forty minutes ago.
*Don't let them find out you have the video.
They already know about the other one.*
Claire read the message twice.
Then she looked at Noah.
"When did this come in?"
"Forty minutes ago.
While we were still in the room." He kept his voice low, angled away from Lily.
"I don't know the number.
I've never seen it before."
"Have you replied?"
"No.
I waited for you."
Lily was focused on her cake, dragging the fork through the frosting in slow, careful lines.
Claire leaned slightly closer to Noah.
"Forward it to me.
Don't delete it."
He nodded and his thumb moved across the screen.
Claire's phone buzzed in her pocket a moment later.
She didn't look at it yet.
She looked at Lily instead.
"Sweetheart," she said, "do you know if Daddy had any other cameras in the house?
Besides the ones in the hallways?"
Lily thought about it, her fork suspended in the air.
"He put one in my room," she said.
"After the bad night."
Claire kept her expression still.
"What bad night?"
"When I woke up and Grandma was in my room." Lily set the fork down on the plate.
"She was looking at my things.
Daddy got really quiet after that.
The next day he put the camera up." She pointed at the corner of the ceiling above her bed, though they were in the hallway.
The gesture was automatic.
She'd looked at that camera many times.
"He said it was so he could check on me from his phone."
"Did he ever show you what it recorded?"
"No.
But he looked at it a lot." Lily picked up the fork again.
"He looked at it the morning before he went away."
Noah's hand went still against his knee.
Claire stood up slowly.
"I'll be right back.
Noah's going to stay with you."
She walked to the far end of the hallway, past the row of framed family photographs β Marcus at every age, Evelyn always at the center β and stopped near the window.
She pulled out her phone.