Chapter 6 - Vance’s VideosThe hidden camera did not record continuously.
It was motion activated.
Investigators recovered hundreds of clips from a cloud account associated with Vance.
At first, the footage appeared mundane.
Theo walking.
Theo reading.
Theo watching television.
Then the pattern emerged.
Vance saved specific clips.
Theo dropping a bowl.
Theo crying during an argument.
Theo pushing a chair backward.
Theo running upstairs after being scolded.
The saved filenames were worse.
Outburst 4.
Destruction 7.
Defiance.
Aggression.
Celia watched one clip with Detective Quinn.
Theo stood near the dining room table.
Vance was off camera.
His voice could be heard.
“Pick it up.”
Theo answered:
“I didn’t throw it.”
“Pick it up.”
“You did.”
Vance stepped partially into frame.
“Are you calling me a liar?”
Theo backed away.
“No.”
“Then pick it up.”
A broken decorative plate lay on the floor.
Theo knelt.
The clip ended.
Celia stared.
“You can’t see who broke it.”
Quinn shook her head.
“But look at the earlier clip.”
Two minutes before.
Vance entered alone.
He picked up the plate.
Dropped it.
Then left the camera view.
Celia felt cold.
He had staged it.
Another video showed Vance scratching the side of an expensive dining chair with a metal object before calling Theo into the room.
Another showed him knocking over the framed photograph of Andrew.
The same photograph Theo had been forced to apologize for destroying.
Celia pushed away from the laptop.
“I made him apologize.”
Quinn paused the recording.
Celia began crying.
“He kept saying he didn’t do it.”
“You didn’t have the footage.”
“I had my son.”
That sentence stayed with her.
Quinn did not contradict it.
Vance had been manufacturing evidence.
Not every incident.
Theo was still a child.
He spilled things.
Forgot things.
Occasionally slammed a door.
But several of the most serious examples in Vance’s file were staged.
The camera that Vance intended to use against Theo had become evidence against him.
Celia almost found that satisfying.
Almost.
Then investigators found a folder named:
PLACEMENT.
It contained edited clips.
Short segments stripped of context.
Theo crying.
Theo shouting “Leave me alone!”
Theo knocking books off a table.
Theo pushing past Vance.
Without the preceding moments, the videos made Theo look volatile.
One clip was meant for a residential treatment consultant.
Vance had already emailed it.
Celia’s hands shook.
“He was trying to send my son away.”
Rachel answered:
“He was gathering material that might support a recommendation.”
“That’s the same thing.”
Quinn reminded her that no placement could simply happen because Vance wanted it.
Celia would need to consent.
Professionals would evaluate Theo.
The trust would not automatically fund anything.
But Vance did not need certainty.
He needed pressure.
He needed Celia exhausted enough to say yes.
That evening Theo asked if he could see the camera.
Celia hesitated.
Then showed him the device, not the recordings.
“It was there?”
“Yes.”
“All the time?”
“For a while.”
Theo stared.
“He said you knew.”
Celia felt sick.
“I didn’t.”
“He said you wanted to know when I was bad.”
“No.”
Theo looked at her.
“Really?”
Celia knelt.
“Really.”
He seemed to study her face for any sign of uncertainty.
Then nodded.
Celia asked:
“Did he talk about sending you somewhere?”
Theo picked at the sleeve of his shirt.
“He showed me a school.”
“The one in Colorado?”
“I think.”
“What did he say?”
“That kids who don’t listen live there.”
Celia’s jaw tightened.
“And?”
“That you were tired.”
She closed her eyes.
Theo continued.
“He said maybe you wanted a new life.”
Celia hugged him.
“I want my life with you.”
“What about Vance?”
The question hurt.
“I made a mistake marrying him.”
Theo stared.
Adults almost never said that plainly.
Celia continued.
“That mistake is mine. Not yours.”
Theo leaned against her.
Later Rachel called.
She had found another irregularity.
Six months earlier, Celia had signed a limited financial authorization allowing Vance to pay certain household renovation invoices from one of her personal accounts while she was traveling for work.
The authorization should have expired after sixty days.
It did.
But transfers continued.
“How much?” Celia asked.
Rachel’s voice was careful.
“Approximately four hundred eighty thousand dollars.”
Celia gripped the phone.
“To whom?”
“Mostly Sterling Crest.”
Vance’s company.
May you like
The house-sale plan had not been his first attempt to use Celia’s money.
He had already been taking it.
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