Chapter 1
I was on my knees cleaning the living room floor when Linda walked behind me.
“You missed a spot,” she said.
“I’ll get it in a second.”
She laughed.
“You always have an excuse.”
Before I could rise, her hand closed in my hair.
Hard.
“Linda!”
She yanked my head back until pain shot through my scalp and my rag fell from my hand.
“You live in my son’s house,” she hissed. “You eat his food. You spend his money.”
Then she shoved my face toward the bucket beside me.
“You are nothing but a freeloader.”
My face hit dirty water.
I choked.
Panic exploded in my chest.
I pushed against the floor, gasping, but she forced me down again.
“Stop!”
She laughed.
Something inside me snapped.
I twisted free, coughing, water dripping from my face, and grabbed her wrist.
Linda swung to slap me.
I caught her hair instead.
“You want to humiliate someone?”
I pulled her down toward the same bucket.
“Try yourself.”
Her face hit the water for one second.
Only one.
She screamed and fought upright.
That was when the front door opened.
Ryan walked in.
My husband saw Linda dripping wet.
He saw my hand tangled in her hair.
He did not see her trying to drown me in a cleaning bucket.
“Emily, what the hell are you doing?”
I staggered back.
“She attacked me first!”
Linda began sobbing instantly.
“She tried to drown me!”
“That’s a lie!”
Ryan charged at me.
His hand locked around my throat and shoved me into the wall.
“Get your hands off my mother!”
I clawed at his wrist.
Air vanished.
“Ryan,” I rasped. “Look at the camera.”
He froze.
Linda froze too.
I pointed to the small camera above the bookshelf.
Ryan slowly loosened his grip.
Linda’s wet face twisted.
“That camera hasn’t worked in months.”
I looked straight at her.
“No, Linda.”
I reached for my phone.
“I replaced it yesterday.”
Her face collapsed.
May you like
Because the camera had recorded more than what she did to me.
It had recorded what she said on the phone five minutes before she grabbed my hair.
