CHAPTER 3 — The Camera No One Remembered
I drove home before dawn.
The apartment felt colder than ever.
My mother was already cleaning.
Throwing away towels.
Changing bedsheets.
Washing blankets.
Destroying evidence.
"What are you doing?" I asked.
She smiled.
"Helping."
I walked past her.
Then I remembered something.
Three months earlier, I'd installed a small security camera in the hallway after several packages had been stolen.
No one ever mentioned it again.
Including my mother.
I opened the footage.
Day after day...
The truth unfolded.
While I was at work, my mother came every afternoon.
She screamed at Megan.
Called her lazy.
Worthless.
A gold digger.
Then...
She yanked Megan from the bed by her legs.
Forced her to stand.
Forced her to clean.
When Megan collapsed...
My mother kicked her walker away.
On one recording, Megan cried,
"Please... the baby..."
My mother answered with words that made my blood run cold.
"If you lose this baby, maybe my son will finally leave you."
I couldn't breathe.
There was more.
She had hidden Megan's phone.
Poured out her medication.
Even lied to me every evening, telling me Megan had eaten well.
Everything had been planned.
Every lie.
May you like
Every bruise.
Every doubt she'd planted inside my mind.
