Chapter 7 - SOMEONE WAS WATCHING US
Ethan stood up so quickly his chair scraped across the floor.
“What cameras?”
Derek said nothing.
“Derek,” I whispered.
He looked at me.
I knew that expression.
I had seen it whenever he was deciding how much truth to give me.
Not whether to lie.
How much truth.
Ethan grabbed his laptop.
“Claire, where’s the router?”
“Office.”
He moved.
Derek stepped into his path.
“No.”
Noah immediately moved between them.
“Bad choice.”
“This is my network.”
“It’s Claire’s home too,” Ethan said.
Derek tried another tactic.
“You can’t just hack into my system.”
“I’m not hacking anything. Claire authorized me to inspect equipment in her own residence.”
He disappeared down the hallway.
I felt suddenly exposed.
I looked at the ceiling.
The smoke detector.
The bookshelf.
The thermostat.
Had someone been watching Sophie eat breakfast?
Watching me sleep?
Watching us argue?
Vanessa seemed sick.
“He told me he had cameras,” she said quietly.
“You knew?”
“Not everywhere.”
“Where?”
“Living room. Hallway. His office.”
My stomach turned.
“Bedroom?”
She didn’t answer.
That silence was an answer.
I turned toward Derek.
“You recorded our bedroom?”
“No.”
“Did you record me?”
“No.”
“You’re lying.”
“I installed security cameras.”
“Without telling me?”
“For safety.”
I laughed.
It came out broken.
“You were monitoring me.”
Derek exploded.
“Because I couldn’t trust you!”
Everyone froze.
There it was.
The real Derek.
Not the charming husband.
Not the businessman.
The man underneath.
“You were sneaking around,” he continued. “Talking to your brothers. Asking questions about accounts. What was I supposed to do?”
Daniel’s eyebrows lifted.
“So you knew she was preparing to leave.”
“I knew she was unstable.”
Sophie started crying again.
I turned toward her immediately.
Before I could kneel, Derek said, “See? This is exactly what I mean. You fill her head with—”
“Stop.”
My voice cut through the room.
Derek stopped.
I had almost never interrupted him during an argument.
That habit ended tonight.
“You will not blame our daughter for being afraid of you.”
“I’m not blaming her.”
“You called her a liar.”
“She was lying.”
“The video proves she wasn’t.”
He had no answer.
Ethan returned carrying a small black device.
I had never seen it before.
“What is that?”
“Local storage hub.”
Derek’s face tightened.
Ethan placed it on the table.
“Hidden behind the bookshelf in the office.”
Luke looked at Derek.
“Who has access?”
“No idea.”
Ethan connected the device.
“Then this should be interesting.”
Files began appearing.
Hundreds of them.
Dated folders.
Living room.
Hallway.
Office.
Guest room.
Kitchen.
Master bedroom.
My skin went cold.
Daniel quietly closed Sophie’s view of the laptop.
“Claire.”
I knew what he was asking.
Was I okay?
No.
But I nodded anyway.
Ethan opened the access logs.
“There are three administrator accounts.”
“One yours?” I asked.
He shook his head.
“These predate my installation.”
He read the usernames aloud.
DRK_ADMIN.
EWARD.
And one called OBSERVER.
Vanessa leaned over.
“Who’s Observer?”
Derek went pale.
That reaction told me he didn’t know.
Ethan noticed too.
“You didn’t create it?”
“No.”
For the first time, I believed him.
A sudden sound came from upstairs.
A dull thump.
Every head turned.
Sophie grabbed my arm.
Noah moved toward the stairs.
“Stay here.”
Another sound.
This one unmistakable.
A door closing.
Derek whispered, “Someone’s upstairs.”
Luke reached for his phone.
Daniel pulled Sophie behind him.
Noah climbed three steps.
Then stopped.
A shadow moved across the upstairs hallway.
Someone had been in my house.
While all of us were downstairs.
May you like
Noah took another step.
The lights went out.
