Chapter 4
The videos were on Vanessa’s tablet.
She had hidden them in a folder labeled Behavior.
I opened the first one with the officer beside me.
Lily sat on the pantry floor, sobbing.
Vanessa’s voice came from behind the camera.
“Tell Daddy you’re bad.”
Lily cried, “I’m hungry.”
The video ended.
I could not breathe.
The next clip showed Lily standing near the refrigerator.
Vanessa slapped her hand away.
“You eat when I say you eat.”
Another clip.
Lily crying in the hallway.
Vanessa whispering, “If Daddy finds out, he’ll pick me and Mason. Nobody wants a needy little girl.”
I gripped the table.
The officer quietly took the tablet.
Vanessa shouted from the living room.
“She’s manipulating all of you!”
Mason stood beside me with his arms wrapped around himself.
I knelt.
“Why did she record it?”
His lip shook.
“She said she needed proof Lily was bad. So after you married her for real, she could send Lily away.”
Married her for real.
My stomach dropped.
We had a wedding ceremony six months ago.
But Vanessa had insisted we delay filing final legal paperwork because of “insurance complications.”
I had not questioned it.
The officer looked at me.
“Sir, do you have custody documents for Lily?”
“Yes.”
“And any estate or trust?”
I froze.
Anna had left Lily a trust.
Not huge.
But enough for college.
May you like
Enough to matter.
Enough for Vanessa.
