Chapter 3 - The TabletAdrienne denied everything.
“I borrowed the tablet once.”
“When?” Travis asked.
“Months ago.”
“Where is it?”
“I don’t know.”
“You told me Milo moved it.”
“I guessed.”
“He couldn’t even walk.”
She rolled her eyes.
“Then Lucia moved it.”
Lucia had returned that morning after spending the previous day taking her mother to a medical appointment.
Kelsey immediately noticed Adrienne’s face change when Lucia entered the room.
Travis asked:
“Did you move my office iPad?”
Lucia looked confused.
“No, sir.”
“Have you seen Adrienne use it?”
Lucia froze.
Adrienne stepped forward.
“Be careful.”
Kelsey looked at her.
“Why does she need to be careful?”
Adrienne ignored her.
Lucia lowered her eyes.
“Sometimes.”
Travis stared.
“How often?”
“I don’t know.”
“Lucia.”
The housemaid swallowed.
“Many times.”
Adrienne snapped:
“She’s lying.”
Lucia flinched.
Kelsey noticed.
Not surprise.
Fear.
“How long has she been afraid of you?” Kelsey asked.
Adrienne laughed.
“Oh, please.”
Lucia looked toward the floor.
Travis asked gently:
“Where did Adrienne use the tablet?”
“Usually upstairs.”
“For what?”
“I don’t know.”
Adrienne folded her arms.
“This is humiliating.”
Kelsey ignored her.
“Lucia, yesterday Adrienne called you after Milo fell.”
Lucia looked horrified.
“What?”
“You weren’t here.”
“No, ma’am.”
“Did Adrienne know you were gone?”
“Yes.”
Everyone stopped.
Travis’s voice became quiet.
“She knew?”
Lucia nodded.
“I told her in the morning. She said okay.”
Kelsey stared at Adrienne.
“You called for someone you knew wasn’t in the house.”
Adrienne’s expression shifted.
“That proves nothing.”
“It proves you were pretending to help.”
“No. I forgot.”
“You forgot the only employee who handles childcare wasn’t home?”
“I was distracted.”
Kelsey stepped closer.
“Watching what?”
Travis raised a hand.
“Enough.”
Kelsey turned sharply.
“You’re doing it again.”
“No. I’m trying to keep this from becoming screaming.”
Adrienne smirked faintly.
Kelsey saw it.
So did Travis.
His face hardened.
“Adrienne.”
“What?”
“Stop.”
Her smile vanished.
Lucia suddenly whispered:
“There is another camera.”
Everyone turned.
“What?” Travis asked.
“The old nursery camera.”
Kelsey stared.
“What nursery camera?”
“When Milo was newborn, Mrs. Kelsey asked me to watch him downstairs sometimes.”
Kelsey remembered.
A small portable baby camera.
They had stopped using it months ago.
Lucia continued:
“I moved it to the bookcase because the battery stopped working.”
Travis frowned.
“It shouldn’t record.”
Lucia nodded.
“But it was plugged in yesterday.”
Adrienne went pale.
Kelsey saw it immediately.
“Who plugged it in?”
Lucia shook her head.
“I don’t know.”
They found the camera behind a row of decorative books.
The device was old.
But its memory card remained inside.
Travis inserted it into his laptop.
The most recent recording started at 2:55 p.m.
The camera faced the living room.
The staircase appeared in the background.
At 3:16, Milo crawled into frame.
Adrienne sat on the sofa.
She saw him.
There was no question.
She looked directly at him.
Then back at her phone.
Milo reached the stairs.
Adrienne looked again.
She still did not move.
Milo fell.
Kelsey covered her mouth.
Travis stopped breathing.
On the recording, Milo began screaming.
Adrienne shouted:
“LUCIA!”
Then waited.
Exactly as Kelsey had said.
Travis stared at the screen.
Adrienne whispered:
“Turn it off.”
Nobody moved.
“Travis.”
He turned toward his sister.
His face was different now.
Cold.
“You watched him.”
Adrienne began crying.
“I froze.”
“No.”
He pointed at the screen.
“You didn’t freeze.”
“You looked annoyed.”
Kelsey said nothing.
She no longer needed to.
Adrienne stepped toward Travis.
“You don’t understand.”
He moved back.
“Then explain.”
Adrienne’s eyes filled.
“I didn’t think he would fall.”
“You watched him reach the stairs.”
“I thought he’d stop.”
“He’s one.”
“I know.”
Travis’s voice broke.
“Then why didn’t you get up?”
Adrienne looked at Milo.
Then at Kelsey.
Something bitter crossed her face.
“Because everyone in this house expects me to clean up after her.”
Silence.
Kelsey stared.
“After me?”
Adrienne laughed through tears.
“Yes.”
And suddenly the fall was not an isolated act of indifference.
It was resentment.
Old resentment.
Deep resentment.
May you like
Directed at Kelsey.
Using Milo as collateral.
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