Chapter 1 - The Hidden Object
I gently rolled Harper's sleeve back down to cover the horrifying bruises on her fragile arm.
My heart pounded aggressively against my ribs as my medical training screamed at me to call the police.
I had seen countless injuries in the emergency room, but knowing my wife inflicted these made me physically sick.
Looking into Harper's completely terrified eyes, I knew any sudden confrontation would put her in extreme danger.
I offered her a soft smile and pretended I had just been fixing her tangled sweater.
Harper let out a shaky breath and slowly reached into the deep pocket of her pink cardigan.
She kept her eyes locked on the hallway door, terrified that her mother might suddenly walk through it.
She pulled her small hand out and firmly pressed a hard, cold object directly into my palm.
I instinctively closed my fist around it just as the front door handle began to rattle.
Clara walked gracefully into the living room wearing a flawless designer suit and a bright smile.
She dropped her expensive leather luggage by the stairs and asked if we had fun bonding without her.
I forced my voice to remain completely steady as I told her we had a wonderful time watching movies.
Clara walked over and kissed my cheek, but her perfume suddenly smelled entirely suffocating to me.
Later that night, after Clara had gone to sleep, I locked myself inside the master bathroom.
I turned on the sink faucet to mask any noise and slowly opened my trembling fist.
Harper had given me a small plastic capsule that looked like it belonged inside a vending machine toy.
I popped the tight seal open and found a tiny black micro SD card resting inside.
I carefully plugged the memory card into my laptop and clicked on the single video file stored on it.
The grainy footage showed Clara standing in a dark, unfamiliar room holding a brightly burning match.
A bruised and terrified man was tied to a chair in the center of the room.
The man was crying hysterically and begging Clara to spare his life.
He promised he would sign over his entire life savings if she just let him see his daughter one last time.
Clara smiled wickedly directly into the camera lens and dropped the burning match onto his lap.
The man in the terrifying video was clearly Harper's biological father, the man Clara claimed had abandoned them.
He had never walked away from his family like she had told everyone.
He had been brutally murdered by the woman I had just married.
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The video abruptly cut to black, leaving me staring at my own pale reflection in the laptop screen.
Suddenly, the bathroom doorknob slowly began to turn from the outside.
