Chapter 2 - The Footage
The ambulance took Emily to St. Catherine’s with Michael riding beside her and Mason in the front with a paramedic.
Sophia did not come.
At the hospital, a doctor examined Emily while Michael stood outside the curtain, staring at his own hand like it belonged to somebody else.
Mason sat two chairs away.
“You hit Mom,” he said.
Michael closed his eyes. “I know.”
“You believed Aunt Sophia.”
“I know.”
“Why?”
Michael had no answer that didn’t sound ugly.
An hour later Dr. Patel stepped out. “The baby’s heartbeat is strong. Emily has bruising and we’re monitoring contractions. She needs observation.”
Michael nearly folded with relief.
“Can I see her?”
“That’s up to her.”
It wasn’t.
Emily said no.
So Michael went home with a police officer and pulled up the security system.
The video loaded.
There was Emily on the stairs.
There was Sophia behind her.
There were Sophia’s hands.
The shove was clean and unmistakable.
Michael watched his wife fall three times before Detective Carla Reese reached over and paused the screen.
“That’s enough.”
Michael’s jaw tightened. “No. I need the rest.”
The footage continued.
Sophia stood at the top of the stairs for twelve seconds doing nothing.
Then she heard Michael’s key in the door.
Only then did she drop to the floor and begin screaming.
Reese leaned toward the monitor. “That’s useful.”
Michael swallowed. “Keep going back. Mason said she was here last night.”
They rolled the timeline backward.
At 11:43 p.m., Sophia entered through the side door with a key Michael had forgotten she still owned.
She walked straight to his office.
At 11:46, the office camera showed her opening drawers.
At 11:51, she stood on a chair and reached behind a row of law books.
That was where Emily had hidden the red folder.
But when Sophia pulled her hand out, it was empty.
Then she took out her phone.
The microphone caught only part of the call.
“I can’t find it... No, she moved it... Then we do it your way.”
Reese paused the video.
“Who was she talking to?”
Michael shook his head.
Then the camera showed Sophia turning toward the office door.
She said one more sentence clearly.
“If Emily gives that folder to Michael, he’ll know what really happened to Dad.”
Michael’s face went numb.
His father had died two years earlier in what everyone called a car accident.
May you like
Reese looked at him.
“Mr. Carter, I think your family problem just became a homicide question.”
