Chapter 4 - The Camera in the Nursery
The video was silent.
That somehow made it worse.
Dana allowed me to see only a short section because the rest had become evidence.
The timestamp showed eleven days earlier.
Kate stood beside Paige's crib.
Ryan entered behind her.
They argued.
I couldn't hear the words, but I could read the fear on my sister's face.
She tried to leave.
Ryan blocked the door.
Kate pointed toward the crib.
Ryan stepped closer.
Then he grabbed her arm.
Hard.
Kate pulled away.
He shoved her against the wall.
My chair scraped backward.
“Turn it off.”
Dana did.
I couldn't breathe.
My older sister had protected me my entire childhood.
When I was twelve, she punched a boy who bullied me at school.
When our father died, Kate sat beside my bed every night for two weeks because I couldn't sleep.
And somehow, while I had been complaining that she never called anymore, she had been living inside that house with a man who put his hands on her.
“Why didn't she tell me?”
Dana gave the only answer that made sense.
“Fear changes people's decisions.”
Kate entered ten minutes later.
Without Ryan.
Without makeup.
For the first time I saw the yellowing bruise beneath her jaw.
I cried immediately.
Kate did too.
“I'm sorry,” she whispered.
I stood and wrapped my arms around her.
She broke.
Not delicately.
Her knees gave out, and I had to hold her upright while years of fear seemed to leave her body all at once.
“I didn't know about the ribs,” she kept saying. “I swear, Ally. I didn't know.”
We sat down.
Then my sister told me the truth.
Ryan had become controlling during her pregnancy.
After Paige was born, it escalated.
He never hurt Paige in front of Kate.
At least, she hadn't believed he did.
But he handled the baby roughly when she cried.
He called Paige manipulative.
A six-month-old baby.
Kate began sleeping in the nursery.
Three weeks earlier, she noticed Paige guarding her right wrist.
Ryan said the baby had caught it between the crib rails.
Kate believed him because she desperately wanted to.
Then Paige developed bruising near her ribs.
Ryan claimed Kate had held her too tightly.
Slowly, he convinced my sister she was the dangerous parent.
“He kept telling me I was exhausted,” Kate whispered. “That I forgot things. He said postpartum depression was making me careless.”
“Did you believe him?”
“Sometimes.”
That broke my heart.
“What happened Friday?”
Kate's hands began trembling.
She had gone to shower.
Paige had been crying.
When Kate returned, Ryan was standing beside the changing table.
Paige was screaming.
Her left leg was swelling.
Kate wanted the emergency room.
Ryan refused.
“He said if I took her in, they'd investigate both of us.”
“So he bought concealer?”
Kate nodded.
“He said bruises always look worse than they are.”
“And you let him put it on her?”
Tears spilled down her cheeks.
“Yes.”
I wanted to tell her that wasn't okay.
Because it wasn't.
Fear explained her decision.
It didn't erase it.
Kate seemed to understand.
“I failed her.”
“You should have taken her to the hospital.”
“I know.”
“You should have called me.”
“I know.”
She covered her face.
“I thought if I could get Paige out of the house without Ryan realizing what I was doing, you'd notice.”
My anger stopped.
“What?”
Kate looked at me.
“I suggested shopping.”
Ryan almost refused.
Kate told him they needed groceries and that I had been asking to babysit.
Before leaving, she deliberately said the strange sentence I'd remembered.
You're the one person I trust to make the call if she gets too fussy.
“You wanted me to find the injury.”
“I wanted you to make the decision I was too scared to make.”
I stared at her.
It was horrifying.
It was cowardly.
It was desperate.
It was also the reason Paige was now safe.
“Why did you accuse me?”
Kate shook her head.
“I didn't.”
I froze.
“Dana said you called.”
“I called the hospital after seeing your text. Ryan took the phone.”
Dana and I exchanged looks.
“What did he say?”
“I don't know. He walked outside.”
So Ryan had made the accusation while pretending to speak for Kate.
Dana stood.
“That matters.”
The hospital placed Paige temporarily with an approved foster caregiver that evening while emergency family placement paperwork was processed. Kate wasn't allowed unsupervised contact yet because she had concealed the injury.
She accepted the decision.
Ryan didn't.
At 8:30 that night, police went to the Collins house with a warrant.
Ryan was gone.
So was his car.
His attorney claimed he had no idea where his client was.
Then investigators found something in the nursery.
The camera that had recorded Kate's assault hadn't been installed by her.
Ryan had installed it.
He had cameras in multiple rooms.
Not for security.
For surveillance.
He watched Kate while he was away.
He monitored when she slept, who she called, how long she held Paige.
And the memory card had disappeared into the diaper bag because Kate had secretly removed it Friday night.
“I thought there might be proof,” she told Dana.
There was.
Much more than she realized.
At 11:17 p.m., Dana called.
“Police found additional footage stored on Ryan's home computer.”
“Of Paige?”
“Yes.”
My knees weakened.
“Does it show what happened?”
A pause.
“It shows enough.”
“Where's Ryan?”
“We're looking.”
I went to my bedroom window.
A dark sedan sat across the street.
Its headlights were off.
I had never seen it before.
“Dana?”
“Yes?”
“I think someone is outside my house.”
The driver's door opened.
A man stepped onto the pavement.
Even in the darkness, I recognized the way he walked.
May you like
Ryan.
And he was coming toward my front door.
