Chapter 4 - THE CAMERAS RYAN NEVER CHECKEDRyan became obsessed with evidence.
Camera archives.
Logs.
Emails.
Times.
He wanted every second.
Claire's therapist stopped him.
“You're trying to solve guilt through information.”
Ryan stared.
“Isn't information useful?”
“For investigators.”
“And me?”
“What will the forty-third video tell you that the first five didn't?”
Ryan had no answer.
“You failed to notice.”
He looked down.
“Yes.”
“Watching every injury won't change that.”
That hurt.
“Then what does?”
“Not failing the same way again.”
Ryan went home.
The backyard cage had been removed as evidence.
A rectangular patch of dead grass remained.
Ryan hated it.
He wanted landscaping done immediately.
Claire stopped him.
“Why?”
“I don't like looking at it.”
Claire shrugged.
“I don't care.”
He realized.
He was trying to erase his discomfort.
Not hers.
So the grass stayed until it grew naturally.
Small lesson.
Big difference.
The old household cameras were recovered too.
Natalie had disabled some.
Not all.
One interior hallway camera showed Claire approaching Ryan's home office three months earlier.
Ryan was on a video call.
Claire knocked.
Natalie intercepted her.
No audio.
Natalie took Claire away.
Ryan never looked up.
Another night.
Claire stood outside his bedroom.
Ryan was asleep.
Natalie crouched beside her.
Spoke.
Claire returned to her room.
Ryan wondered what she'd said.
Claire remembered.
“Dad has work tomorrow.”
“That all?”
Claire shook her head.
“She said if I woke you, you'd leave us because I was too much.”
Ryan felt his chest tighten.
“Did you believe her?”
“At first.”
“Then?”
Claire looked at him.
“I didn't know.”
That uncertainty hurt worse.
Ryan said:
“You're never too much.”
Claire shrugged.
“Okay.”
He wanted a dramatic hug.
She wanted cereal.
May you like
Healing was often rude to adult expectations.
Ryan made cereal.
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