Chapter 2: The Name on the Screen
Alex didn't move for a long moment.
Then he walked to the small monitor mounted near the pantry and pressed play.
The room went very quiet.
I watched his face change.
"How long?" he said.
His voice was low.
Controlled.
The kind of quiet that is worse than shouting.
"Three months," I whispered.
He turned to look at Evelyn.
She was still standing in the dining room doorway, guests frozen behind her, soup dripping from the edge of the table.
"She made Chloe hold the pot," I said.
"When I tried to take it from her, Evelyn pushed my hands onto the burner."
Evelyn didn't flinch.
"You're so dramatic," she said.
"It was an accident.
You're clumsy.
Everyone here knows it."
Two of the guests looked away.
One woman quietly picked up her purse.
Alex stepped toward his mother.
"The camera has a timestamp.
Thirty-seven seconds.
You held her hands there for thirty-seven seconds."
Evelyn's expression didn't break.
But her fingers tightened around the back of a chair.
"You wouldn't," she said softly.
"I'm your mother."
Alex reached into his jacket pocket and placed his phone on the table between them.
A name was already on the screen.
Not the police.
Someone else entirely.
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What Alex did next — and who he called — changed everything Evelyn thought she was safe from.
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