Chapter 3
I called police immediately.
Detective Marissa Cole arrived with a digital forensics officer.
No one touched anything until they photographed the memory card and copied the files.
Detective Cole watched several clips.
Her expression changed.
“Mrs. Turner, did you know these cameras existed?”
“No.”
“Did your husband?”
“I don’t know.”
Lauren crossed her arms.
“He had the memory card.”
Detective Cole nodded.
“That suggests he knew something.”
I felt sick.
The videos were not intimate in a sexual way.
That was the one relief.
But they were invasive.
Me working late at my desk.
Sophie eating cereal.
My sister visiting.
My mother sitting in the kitchen.
Ryan arguing with me.
Ordinary private moments recorded without our knowledge.
Then the officer found a file labeled JESSICA.
My stomach tightened.
The video opened.
Ryan and Jessica were sitting in our kitchen three months earlier.
They were not kissing.
They were talking.
Jessica said, “Emily still hasn’t signed it?”
Ryan shook his head.
“She won’t.”
“Then stop asking.”
“What do you want me to do?”
Jessica lowered her voice.
“Make her think selling the house is her idea.”
I stopped breathing.
Detective Cole paused the video.
“What house?”
“This house.”
Lauren looked at me.
“You own it.”
“Yes.”
My grandmother left it to me.
Ryan had asked several times whether I would consider selling.
He claimed the neighborhood had become too expensive.
I always said no.
Detective Cole resumed the video.
Jessica leaned across the kitchen table.
“If she sells, the money becomes easier to move.”
Ryan looked nervous.
“And Sophie?”
Jessica shrugged.
“What about her?”
“She loves this place.”
“She’s seven. She’ll adjust.”
I felt rage rising.
This affair was not simply physical.
They had plans involving my property.
The video continued.
Ryan said, “Emily keeps everything separate.”
Jessica smiled.
“Then change that.”
“How?”
“Marriage makes people trusting.”
Detective Cole paused it again.
Lauren whispered, “Oh my God.”
I stared at Ryan’s face on the screen.
He looked uncomfortable.
But he was listening.
Then another file appeared.
This one was dated six weeks earlier.
Jessica stood alone inside my home office.
She opened my desk.
Photographed documents.
Checked folders.
Then she found the locked drawer where I kept my grandmother’s property records.
She tried to open it.
Failed.
Jessica looked directly toward the hidden camera.
“Tell Ryan I need the key.”
I felt cold.
Someone was watching live.
Detective Cole asked, “Who installed these cameras?”
“I don’t know.”
The officer began tracing device information.
Most cameras had been purchased through an account registered to a small security company.
Harrison Risk Management.
I did not recognize it.
Lauren did.
“Wait.”
She pulled out her phone.
“Ryan’s brother Mark works there.”
My stomach sank.
Mark had helped Ryan “upgrade” our Wi-Fi nine months earlier.
Exactly when the recordings began.
Detective Cole looked at me.
“Your brother-in-law had access to the home?”
“Yes.”
“Keys?”
“Ryan gave him one.”
She wrote something down.
Then my phone rang.
Ryan.
The detective told me to answer on speaker.
“Emily.”
His voice sounded desperate.
“You need to stop digging.”
I looked at Cole.
“Why?”
“Because you don’t understand what Jessica was doing.”
“What were you doing?”
Silence.
Then Ryan whispered, “I wasn’t cheating because I loved her.”
I almost laughed.
“That makes it better?”
“No.”
His breathing became uneven.
“She was blackmailing me.”
Detective Cole leaned closer.
“With what?”
May you like
Ryan hesitated.
Then said, “Something involving Sophie.”
