Chapter 3 - THE FIRST LIE VANESSA COULDN'T ERASE
The click of the lock sounded louder than thunder.
Madison stared at her mother.
Vanessa extended one hand.
“Phone.”
“No.”
“Do not make me ask again.”
“You said you had never been in this house before you met David.”
Vanessa’s eyes narrowed.
Madison lifted the old phone.
“You were here.”
Lily could barely breathe behind the coats.
Vanessa spoke very carefully.
“You don’t understand what you saw.”
“I saw you in medical scrubs.”
“That proves nothing.”
“Catherine knew you.”
Vanessa’s jaw tightened.
“You had no right to watch those recordings.”
Madison laughed shakily.
“That’s what you’re worried about?”
“I’m worried about you misunderstanding a sick woman.”
“Funny. That’s exactly what you told her.”
Vanessa moved so fast Lily nearly screamed.
She grabbed Madison’s wrist.
Madison cried out.
The phone slipped.
Lily lunged from behind the coats before she could stop herself.
She caught it inches above the floor.
Vanessa spun around.
For one terrible second, nobody spoke.
Vanessa looked at Lily.
Then at the phone.
Then back at Lily.
“You.”
Lily backed against the shelves.
Madison stepped between them.
“Don’t touch her.”
Vanessa stared at her daughter as if she had become a stranger.
“Move.”
“No.”
“I said move.”
“And I said no.”
Vanessa slapped Madison.
The sound cracked through the pantry.
Madison staggered sideways.
Lily froze.
She had seen Vanessa angry.
She had experienced it.
But she had never seen Vanessa strike Madison.
Madison slowly turned her head back.
Her eyes filled with tears.
Not surprise.
Recognition.
That frightened Lily even more.
This had happened before.
Maybe many times.
Vanessa realized what she had revealed.
Her voice softened immediately.
“Maddie.”
“Don’t.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t call me that.”
“I lost my temper.”
“You always lose your temper when someone knows too much.”
Vanessa’s face hardened again.
“Give me the phone.”
Lily looked toward the door.
Locked.
No escape.
Her father was upstairs.
If she screamed, would he hear?
Maybe.
But Vanessa was close enough to grab her first.
Madison seemed to have the same thought.
She suddenly pointed toward the shelves.
“Behind you!”
Vanessa instinctively turned.
Madison slammed into her.
“Run!”
Lily rushed toward the door.
Locked.
“The key!”
Madison wrestled with Vanessa.
“Pocket!”
Vanessa grabbed Madison’s hair.
Lily reached into the pocket of Vanessa’s robe.
Her fingers found metal.
Vanessa swung toward her.
“You little—”
Lily yanked the key free.
Madison shoved Vanessa backward.
Lily unlocked the door.
Both girls exploded into the hallway.
“Dad!”
Lily’s scream ripped through the house.
“DAD!”
A bedroom door opened upstairs.
“What happened?”
David’s footsteps thundered toward the staircase.
Vanessa came out of the pantry.
Everything about her changed instantly.
Her shoulders collapsed.
Her face twisted into concern.
“David!”
Madison stared at her mother in disbelief.
Vanessa pointed at Lily.
“She broke into the pantry!”
David reached the bottom step.
He looked from Lily to Madison to Vanessa.
“What?”
“She found some old medical recordings,” Vanessa continued. “She got upset. Madison tried to take the phone away, and Lily attacked her.”
“That’s a lie!” Lily shouted.
David looked at her.
Lily held up the phone.
“Dad, Mom knew Vanessa.”
Silence.
David’s expression became confused.
“What are you talking about?”
“She knew her before you married her.”
Vanessa laughed softly.
“Oh, honey.”
Lily hated that voice.
“She worked here!”
David stared at Vanessa.
“What?”
Vanessa’s eyes filled with tears almost on command.
“I didn’t want to tell you like this.”
Madison whispered, “Oh my God.”
David looked between them.
“Tell me what?”
Vanessa folded her arms around herself.
“I worked temporary home care years ago. I was assigned here twice.”
David looked stunned.
“You never told me.”
“It was two shifts.”
“It was more than two,” Lily said.
Vanessa ignored her.
“I barely remembered the address when we met. Then when I realized whose house it was, I panicked.”
“Why?”
“Because I knew how it would look.”
David’s expression tightened.
“How what would look?”
Vanessa wiped her eyes.
“Catherine didn’t like me.”
“That’s not true,” Lily said.
“She accused me of things because of her medication.”
Lily raised the phone.
“She accused you because you changed her pills!”
David looked at the device.
Vanessa shook her head.
“That recording is exactly why I never told you. Catherine was frightened. She was very sick. Her medications affected her judgment.”
Lily wanted to scream.
Vanessa was doing it again.
Not just to her.
To Catherine.
Turning fear into confusion.
Truth into illness.
David stepped toward Lily.
“Can I see the phone?”
Lily hesitated.
Vanessa noticed.
That hesitation became a weapon.
“See?” Vanessa whispered. “She doesn’t even want you to watch it.”
“I do!”
Lily thrust the phone toward her father.
David reached for it.
Then Vanessa’s phone rang.
Everyone flinched.
She looked at the screen.
“David, it’s Kevin from your company.”
David frowned.
“At midnight?”
“He called me because you left your phone upstairs.”
She answered.
“Hello?”
Her expression shifted.
“What?”
David stepped closer.
Vanessa handed him the phone.
“It’s the Westerville site.”
David listened.
Lily watched his face change.
“What do you mean the temporary wall failed?”
He turned away.
“Was anybody hurt?”
A pause.
“Call fire and structural. I’m coming.”
He ended the call.
Lily panicked.
“No.”
David looked at her.
“Sweetheart, I have to go.”
“No! You have to watch this.”
“I will.”
“Now.”
“Lily—”
“Please.”
Her voice broke.
David looked at her red cheek.
At Madison’s face.
At Vanessa.
Something troubled moved through his eyes.
Vanessa placed one hand gently on his shoulder.
“Go. I’ll calm everyone down.”
Lily recoiled.
“No!”
David hesitated.
That hesitation mattered.
Lily saw it.
For the first time, Vanessa saw it too.
“Dad,” Lily whispered. “Please take the phone with you.”
Vanessa’s eyes snapped toward her.
David nodded.
“Okay.”
Lily handed it over.
Relief flooded her.
Vanessa smiled.
Too quickly.
David grabbed his coat.
“I’ll be back as soon as I can. Nobody touches anybody. Everybody goes to bed. We talk in the morning.”
He kissed Lily’s forehead.
Then he left.
The garage door closed.
The house became silent.
Vanessa slowly turned toward the girls.
The softness disappeared from her face.
“You two made a very serious mistake.”
Madison stepped beside Lily.
“He has the phone.”
Vanessa smiled.
“Yes.”
Lily’s stomach sank.
“What?”
Vanessa walked into the kitchen.
“You think I left those recordings on a device for two years without knowing how they worked?”
Madison frowned.
“What are you talking about?”
Vanessa picked up her own cell phone.
She tapped the screen twice.
Then smiled.
“The phone Catherine used was connected to the Carter home cloud account.”
Lily stared.
“So?”
“So your father just drove away with a device I can erase remotely.”
Madison lunged for Vanessa’s phone.
Vanessa lifted it out of reach.
“Too late.”
Lily’s heart stopped.
Vanessa touched the screen.
“Delete device.”
“No!”
Lily screamed and rushed forward.
Vanessa shoved her backward.
The old grandfather clock in the living room struck midnight.
Vanessa’s screen displayed a spinning circle.
Then:
ERASURE REQUESTED.
Lily stood frozen.
Months of her mother’s final words were about to disappear.
Vanessa leaned close.
“By morning, David will have nothing.”
Madison suddenly started laughing.
Vanessa frowned.
“What is funny?”
Madison looked at Lily.
Then she pulled a tiny black memory card from inside her sweatshirt sleeve.
“I copied the videos three days ago.”
Vanessa stopped smiling.
Madison held up the card.
“And you just admitted you knew exactly what was on them.”
For the first time since Vanessa entered Lily’s life, she looked truly afraid.
Then headlights swept across the front windows.
A car had pulled into the Carter driveway.
Vanessa looked toward the door.
Madison looked too.
Lily’s heart jumped.
“Dad?”
But the person who stepped out of the car was not David.
It was a man Lily had never seen before.
Vanessa whispered one word.
“No.”
May you like
And when the man began walking toward the front door, Madison noticed something else.
He was carrying a folder with Catherine Carter’s name written across the front.
