Chapter 6: The Man in the Video
Ryan didn't move.
For three seconds, neither did I.
The video kept playing on the laptop, the same frozen frame of my wife standing beside my brother in the nursery three years earlier. Claire was holding a folder against her chest. Ryan was looking directly at her.
Then the audio resumed.
“I told you he would never suspect me.””
Claire's voice.
My stomach turned.
Ryan reached across the table and shut the laptop.
“Daniel,” he said quietly, “you need to listen to me.””
I stood so fast the chair scraped backward.
“You.””
He swallowed.
“You were there.””
“Yes.””
“With my wife.””
“Yes.””
“You knew.””
“I knew some of it.””
I laughed once. There was nothing funny about it.
“Some of it?””
Ryan looked at the floor.
I stepped around the table.
“What happened to my house?””
“Claire sold most of it.””
“I know that.””
“No, Daniel. You don't.””
He looked up.
“She didn't sell it for the reason you think.””
I stared at him.
“You're going to explain that sentence very carefully.””
Ryan rubbed both hands over his face.
“Claire was scared.””
“Of what?””
“Of you finding out.””
“That doesn't explain why my furniture disappeared.””
“No.””
“Why my mother was left with two babies.””
“No.””
“Why my wife vanished.””
Ryan's jaw tightened.
“She didn't vanish.””
I felt something cold move through me.
“Where is she?””
He didn't answer.
“Ryan.””
“She left the country.””
“Where?””
“I don't know.””
I grabbed the back of the chair.
“You expect me to believe that?””
“I expect you to believe that I lost track of her.””
“Three years.””
“Yes.””
“You're my brother.””
“I know.””
“You watched her do this.””
“I didn't know everything.””
“You watched her.””
His eyes filled with something that looked dangerously close to shame.
“She told me you were dangerous.””
I stared at him.
“Me?””
“She said you had changed after deployment. She said you were unpredictable. She said she was afraid you would take the girls.””
I took another step.
“And you believed her?””
“At first.””
The word hung between us.
“At first,” I repeated.
Ryan nodded.
“She showed me messages. Emails. Things that looked like threats.””
“I never sent her threats.””
“I know that now.””
“Then why didn't you tell me?””
“Because by the time I knew she was lying, you were already gone.””
I looked at the laptop.
“Where did that video come from?””
Ryan didn't answer immediately.
Finally, he said, “Maya.””
I turned.
“The nanny?””
“Yes.””
“What does Maya have to do with this?””
“She was the one who found the camera.””
My pulse began to climb.
“What camera?””
Ryan opened the laptop again.
He clicked through a folder.
There were dozens of files.
Dates.
Times.
Images.
I recognized my old house.
The nursery.
The kitchen.
The hallway.
My hands went numb.
“Claire put cameras in the house,” Ryan said.
“She said they were for security.””
I watched a clip from three years ago.
Claire walked into the nursery carrying one of the girls.
She looked exhausted.
Then she looked directly toward the camera.
“She can't see this,” I whispered.
Ryan shook his head.
“She couldn't see that camera.””
“Then who could?””
“Maya.””
The next clip opened.
Maya was sitting on the floor beside the crib.
She was crying.
Claire entered the room.
“You have until Friday,” Claire said.
Maya looked up.
“Please don't do this.””
“You agreed.””
“I agreed to babysit.””
“You agreed to keep quiet.””
“I didn't agree to lie about their father.””
Claire's face changed.
“You don't know what you're talking about.””
“I know exactly what I'm talking about.””
The clip ended.
I stared at the black screen.
“What was Maya supposed to lie about?””
Ryan closed the laptop.
“That,” he said, “is the question we've been trying to answer.””
“Who's we?””
He hesitated.
“Maya and me.””
I almost smiled.
“My brother and the nanny.””
“I know how it sounds.””
“It sounds like you both knew my life was being destroyed while I was halfway around the world.””
Ryan flinched.
“You're right.””
That answer stopped me.
He didn't defend himself.
He simply sat there.
“I was a coward,” he said.
I looked away.
For three years, I had imagined every possible explanation for what happened.
Infidelity.
Money.
Another man.
A second life.
I had never imagined that my own brother had been sitting on the edge of the truth.
“Where are my daughters?””
Ryan's eyes lifted.
“With Maya.””
I froze.
“They're not with Claire?””
“No.””
“Why?””
“Because Claire left them with your mother.””
“And my mother?””
“She raised them.””
I closed my eyes.
My mother had never told me everything.
I knew that now.
The question was why.
Ryan opened the laptop one more time.
“There is one more thing.””
“What?””
He pulled up a scanned document.
It was dated six weeks before my return.
At the bottom was Claire's signature.
Above it were two words.
*Custody Transfer.*
I read the document twice.
Then I saw the names.
Emma Carter.
Lily Carter.
And beneath them, under “father”—
my name had been crossed out.
I looked at Ryan.
“Who did this?””
He whispered the answer.
“Claire didn't.””
My chest tightened.
“Then who?””
Ryan turned the laptop toward me.
A second signature appeared beneath the document.
*Dr. Marcus Hale.*
I knew that name.
I had seen it once before.
On a medical form Claire had given me months before deployment.
I just hadn't known why.
Ryan whispered, “He's the reason none of this makes sense.””
And then his phone rang.
The screen showed a number neither of us recognized.
Ryan answered.
May you like
A woman's voice said, “Stop looking.””
Then the line went dead.
