Chapter 3: What the Phone Said
Mark did not answer Victoria.
He handed the phone back to her without a word.
Then he turned and carried Thomas down the hallway toward the boy's room.
His footsteps were measured.
Deliberate.
The walk of a man holding himself together by force.
Victoria watched him go.
The smile stayed on her face for exactly three more seconds.
Then it disappeared.
She looked at me.
"You should start thinking about where you'll go," she said.
"After today."
"I'm not going anywhere," I said.
"You sl@pped me, Elena.
Three times." She tilted her head.
"I have it on the hallway camera.
Every frame of it."
I had forgotten about the cameras.
The house had them everywhere — Mark had installed them two years ago after a break-in at a neighboring property.
I had never thought about them since.
My stomach dropped.
But I kept my face still.
"Then the camera also has what came before it," I said.
Something moved behind her eyes.
Fast.
Gone.
"We'll see what the camera has," she said, and walked away.
---
I found Mark in Thomas's room twenty minutes later.
He was sitting in the small chair beside the crib, Thomas asleep against his chest, one tiny hand curled around his father's collar.
Mark was staring at the wall.
I stood in the doorway.
"Mr.
Hargrove."
He looked up.
"Close the door."
I did.
"Sit down, Elena."
There was nowhere to sit except the edge of the changing table.
I sat there.
"Thomas's mother," Mark said quietly.
"Her name was Claire.
She d*ed when Thomas was four months old.
A car accident on the interstate.
She was alone." He paused.
"I never talk about her because Thomas is too young to understand, and because every time I try, I — " He stopped.
Looked down at his son.
"I couldn't finish a sentence about her for the first year."
"I'm sorry," I said.
"I didn't know."
"No one does.
Except Victoria." He lifted his eyes.
"That's what made it so easy for her."
"What was on the phone, Mr.
Hargrove?"
He was quiet for a long moment.
"A document," he said finally.
"A petition.
Victoria's lawyer filed it six weeks ago." He looked at me steadily.
"She's claiming that I am unfit to raise Thomas.
She's seeking full guardianship."
The room felt smaller suddenly.
"On what grounds?" I said.
"Emotional neglect.
Instability." A muscle worked in his jaw.
"And she has a witness statement.
Someone who claims they saw me — " He stopped.
Shook his head.
"It doesn't matter what it says.
None of it is true."
"Then fight it."
"I intend to." He looked down at Thomas again.
"But Victoria has resources I didn't know she had.
Her family — I thought they were estranged.
Apparently they are not." He exhaled.
"She's been planning this for a long time, Elena.
Long before today."
Thomas stirred in his sleep.
Made a small sound.
Mark's hand moved automatically to the boy's back, a slow, steady circle.
"Why?" I asked.
"Why would she want Thomas?
She doesn't even — " I stopped myself.
"Like him?" Mark said.
"No.
She doesn't." His voice was flat.
"But Claire's family left a trust.
For Thomas.
A significant one.
It becomes accessible to his legal guardian when he turns three." He paused.
"Thomas turns three in eleven weeks."
The silence in that small room was total.
I thought about the red mark on Thomas's arm.
The way he had gone still when the air changed.
The way a two-year-old boy had already learned to make himself small.
Eleven weeks.
"Mr.
Hargrove," I said carefully.
"The hallway camera."
He looked at me.
"Victoria said she has footage of me.
But the camera would have recorded everything from the beginning.
Including what she did to Thomas before I reached him."
Mark sat very still.
"Where is the camera system stored?" I said.
He stood up slowly, shifted Thomas to his shoulder without waking him, and crossed to the door.
May you like
"My office," he said.
"Come with me."
