Chapter 2 - The Video on Margaret's Phone.
I carried Lily upstairs while Margaret stayed behind in the dining room with Daniel.
No one followed me.
That frightened me more than shouting would have.
I locked the nursery door and sat in the rocking chair with Lily pressed against me until her sobbing became small hiccups.
A red mark had appeared across the back of her hand.
I photographed it with my phone.
Then I photographed it again from another angle.
I had no plan.
I only knew I did not want anyone telling me tomorrow that I had imagined what happened tonight.
Downstairs, voices murmured.
Margaret's voice was too low for me to hear clearly.
Daniel answered once.
"I know."
Then silence.
I looked at Lily.
"What does he know?"
She blinked sleepily at me, unaware that her parents' marriage had just shifted under her feet.
My phone buzzed.
A message from Daniel appeared.
COME DOWNSTAIRS WITHOUT LILY.
I stared at it.
Another message followed.
WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT WHAT YOU DID.
I almost laughed.
Not because anything was funny.
Because the sentence was so perfectly Daniel that it made me feel sick.
His mother had struck our daughter.
He had shouted in my face.
I had slapped him once while holding Lily.
And somehow the family emergency had already been edited down to what I did.
I placed Lily in her crib and turned on the monitor.
Then I slipped the phone into my pocket and went downstairs.
Margaret had moved to the living room.
Her birthday sash had been removed.
She sat upright on the sofa with one ankle crossed over the other, looking less like a grandmother and more like a witness waiting to testify.
Daniel stood by the fireplace.
"Sit down."
"No."
Margaret lifted her phone.
"Maybe this will help you understand the seriousness of your behavior."
She pressed play.
A video filled the screen.
It showed the dining room.
It showed Daniel rising.
It showed me holding Lily.
Then it showed my hand striking Daniel.
The clip ended immediately after the slap.
Nothing before it.
No spilled bowl.
No Margaret slapping Lily's hand.
No Daniel advancing toward me.
Just me hitting my husband.
"Where is the rest?"
Margaret's mouth curved slightly.
"That is the important part."
"You were recording the whole dinner."
"It was my birthday."
"Then show the beginning."
Daniel stepped between us.
"Stop interrogating her."
I stared at him.
"You know that clip is cut."
He did not answer.
That was answer enough.
Margaret put her phone face down.
"Claire, you've been unstable for months."
"Excuse me?"
"The yelling."
"What yelling?"
"The hostility."
"Toward you?"
"Toward everyone."
Daniel rubbed his cheek where my hand had landed.
"She's not completely wrong."
Something cold traveled down my back.
"How long have you two been discussing me?"
Neither spoke.
Then Margaret reached into her handbag.
She removed a white envelope.
My name was typed across the front.
"What is that?"
Daniel finally looked ashamed.
Margaret did not.
"Something we hoped we would never need."
She slid the envelope across the coffee table.
Inside was a printed consultation summary from a family-law office in Columbus.
The date at the top was six weeks earlier.
The subject line read: Emergency Custody and Domestic Safety Options.
My hands went numb.
I looked up at my husband.
"Six weeks?"
Daniel whispered my name.
I held up the paper.
"You met with a custody lawyer six weeks ago?"
May you like
Margaret answered for him.
"We prepared for tonight."
