Chapter 1 - The Erased Truth
That was when Sabrina’s fingers tightened around the ladle.
For the first time all afternoon, my sister looked less like a guest at a birthday party and more like someone realizing the walls had been watching her.
Nolan did not wait for her to answer his question.
He reached into his uniform pocket and pulled out his phone, his thumb already swiping to open the home security app.
The ambulance sirens were finally wailing in the distance, cutting through the dead silence of our kitchen.
My mother covered her mouth with both hands, stepping backward until she hit the refrigerator.
I did not take my eyes off Sabrina.
"Show me the pantry feed, Nolan," I demanded, my voice shaking but loud enough for the whole room to hear.
Nolan tapped the screen, his brow furrowing in confusion.
He tapped it again, much harder this time.
"It is gone," Nolan whispered, looking up at me with wide eyes.
"What do you mean it is gone?" I asked, my heart hammering against my ribs.
"The entire camera log for the last two hours has been manually wiped," he said, turning the screen so I could see the blank timeline.
My blood ran completely cold.
Deleting the local storage on that system required a master passcode.
Only two people in the world knew that passcode.
I was one of them, and Nolan was the other.
Sabrina slowly set the ladle down on the table, a sickly sweet smile returning to her face.
"Technology is so unreliable these days, isn't it?" Sabrina murmured.
I lunged forward, grabbing Sabrina’s purse off the counter and dumping its contents onto the floor.
"Camille, stop being crazy!" my father yelled, finally stepping forward to intervene.
I ignored him and grabbed Sabrina's unlocked phone from the pile of lipstick and receipts.
My eyes darted to her open text messages on the bright screen.
The most recent message was sent just three minutes ago, right before Harper collapsed.
May you like
It was a message sent to Nolan's number.
The text simply read, "Did you delete the footage like we planned?"
