Adrian looked at his daughter.

“What do you mean?”

Olivia swallowed.

“There are more recordings.”

Vanessa stepped forward.

“Olivia.”

“Stay away from me.”

The officer immediately moved between them.

“Ma’am, remain where you are.”

Vanessa stopped.

Olivia opened her laptop.

“Our cameras automatically save clips when they detect movement.”

Adrian nodded slowly.

He had installed the system after Emma was born.

He had barely thought about it since.

Olivia continued.

“I started looking because Vanessa kept saying Clara was careless.”

Clara stared at her.

“When?”

“About three weeks ago.”

Adrian’s stomach tightened.

“You’ve been investigating her for three weeks?”

“I didn’t know what I was investigating.”

Olivia looked embarrassed.

“I thought maybe Clara really was making mistakes.”

Clara said nothing.

Olivia looked at her.

“I’m sorry.”

Clara shook her head.

“You were trying to protect your sister.”

Olivia turned the laptop toward the police officer.

“I saved everything.”

The first clip showed Vanessa entering the nursery late at night.

Emma was asleep.

Vanessa walked to the changing table.

She picked up one of Emma’s prescription creams.

She opened it.

Then she squeezed a large amount into a tissue and threw it away.

The next morning, another camera showed Vanessa speaking to Adrian.

There was no sound from that angle.

But Adrian remembered the conversation.

“Clara forgot Emma’s medication again.”

That was what Vanessa had told him.

Adrian had questioned Clara about it.

Clara had insisted she had used the medication correctly.

He had believed Vanessa.

The next clip played.

Vanessa entered the kitchen.

She opened a cabinet.

She moved a glass baby bottle from the sterilized section and placed it among the dirty dishes.

Twenty minutes later, she called Adrian.

Again, he remembered.

“Your nanny left a dirty bottle with the clean ones.”

Another clip.

Vanessa loosened the strap on Emma’s high chair.

Another.

She poured milk onto the nursery rug.

Another.

She removed Olivia’s school project from a folder and pushed it behind a cabinet.

Adrian looked at his daughter.

“You told me Clara lost that.”

Olivia nodded.

“She didn’t.”

Vanessa laughed nervously.

“This is insane.”

The officer looked at her.

“Ma’am, please remain quiet while we review the footage.”

“I live here.”

“That doesn’t change my request.”

Olivia opened another folder.

“I made copies.”

Adrian stared at her.

“Why didn’t you show me?”

Olivia looked at him for several seconds.

“Because you always defended Vanessa.”

The words landed quietly.

That made them worse.

“You’d say she was adjusting.”

Olivia’s voice trembled.

“You’d say she was under pressure.”

“You’d say Clara misunderstood her.”

“You’d tell me to give Vanessa another chance.”

Adrian had no answer.

Because every word was true.

Vanessa looked at him.

“She’s a teenager.”

Olivia slammed the laptop shut.

“And Emma is a baby.”

The room became silent.

One of the paramedics approached Adrian.

“Sir, we need to transport Clara for imaging.”

Adrian nodded.

“I’m coming.”

Clara immediately shook her head.

“No.”

He looked at her.

“Clara.”

“You need to stay with Emma.”

“I can have Olivia—”

“No.”

She looked directly into his eyes.

“You should stay with your daughters.”

Something about the way she said your daughters made Adrian feel a distance he had never felt before.

A boundary.

A door closing.

“I’ll make sure you’re taken care of.”

Clara’s expression hardened.

“I don’t want your money.”

“That’s not what I meant.”

“It’s what everyone means eventually.”

The paramedic helped her toward the door.

Adrian watched her leave.

He wanted to follow.

He wanted to apologize again.

He wanted to somehow rewind the last hour.

But there was no rewind.

One officer turned toward Vanessa.

“Ms. Cole, I need you to come with us while we sort this out.”

Vanessa stared at Adrian.

“You’re allowing this?”

Adrian looked at the woman he had planned to marry.

Then he looked toward the staircase where his daughter could have died.

“Yes.”

Vanessa’s eyes changed.

The softness vanished completely.

“You think you know what happened.”

Adrian said nothing.

Vanessa smiled faintly.

“You don’t know half of it.”

Then the officer led her outside.