Chapter 4 - Shifting Alliances
For the next two hours, I poured my heart out to Detective Vance. I told her about the years of emotional exclusion, the cropped photographs, the cold comments, and finally, the horrific dialogue I overheard in the kitchen while my daughter lay bleeding upstairs. Vance recorded everything, her expression hardening with every detail.
"We have already dispatched a forensics team to your parents’ home," Vance told me. "We have a warrant to seize the pillowcase, the chemical substances in the house, and the clothes your parents were wearing. We are also pulling the security footage from their home network."
Just as Vance stood up to leave, the heavy doors of the waiting room pushed open. I braced myself, expecting my parents or their high-priced lawyers. Instead, it was my brother, David.
He looked ruined. His tie was loosened, his hair disheveled, and his eyes were red and swollen. Karen, his wife, wasn't with him.
"Emily," he breathed, stepping toward me.
"Get out," I said, my voice dangerously low. "Get out, David. You stood there. You stood by the cake while they laughed. You let them treat Lily like garbage for years."
"I didn't know!" David cried, dropping to his knees right there on the hospital floor, burying his face in his hands. "Swear to God, Emily, I didn't know they would do something like this. When we heard the clink... when Dad said that... I thought he was just making another cruel, passive-aggressive comment about your finances or her dress. I didn't know she was hurt."
He looked up, tears streaming down his face. "After the ambulance left, Mom tried to pour everyone more champagne. She told the guests to ignore your 'theatrics' and sit down for cake. Karen looked at Mom, looked at the blood on the stairs, and she lost it. She screamed at them. She took Madison and left for her mother's house. And then the police arrived with a search warrant."
David reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a small flash drive. "Our parents have a smart-home system. It records audio and video in the hallways and the kitchen for 'security.' Dad told me to go into the study and delete the cloud backups before the police got inside. He thought I would protect him. He thought because Madison is his favorite, I'd protect the family name."
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He pressed the flash drive into my hand. "I didn't delete it. I downloaded it. The hallway camera shows Mom walking into the guest room with a jar and a cloth. It shows her coming out five minutes later, wiping her hands. It catches the sound of Lily crying out once, muffled... and then silence."
I stared at the small piece of plastic in my hand. David had finally chosen a side.
