Chapter 6
Jeffrey moved fast.
Not toward Liam.
Toward the phone.
Madeline expected it.
She stepped back, placing the dining chair between them, her body angled so the camera still captured the table, Noelle, Cynthia, Austin, and the small shadow under the table where Liam trembled.
“Give me that,” Jeffrey said.
His voice dropped into something ugly.
Madeline’s eyes held his.
“No.”
Cynthia rose halfway.
“Jeffrey, don’t.”
That warning told Madeline several things at once.
Cynthia was not afraid for Madeline.
She was afraid of the optics.
A husband lunging at his wife’s phone beside a neglected child would ruin the version of the evening they still hoped to salvage.
Jeffrey stopped, breathing hard.
Noelle recovered enough to sneer.
“So now you’re recording family?”
Madeline looked at her.
“Family?”
The word hung over the room.
Austin licked frosting from his finger.
The child had gone quiet, sensing adult danger without understanding its shape.
Madeline softened her voice toward him.
“Austin, sweetheart, stay where you are.”
Cynthia stiffened.
“Don’t talk to my son.”
Madeline’s gaze returned to Cynthia.
“Exactly.”
Cynthia blinked.
“Exactly what?”
“You understood that immediately.”
The room went still again.
Madeline continued, “You understood that a mother does not let hostile adults command her frightened child. Interesting that none of you remembered that for Liam.”
Jeffrey’s face tightened.
“Do not twist this into some courtroom speech.”
Madeline tilted her head.
“Why? Afraid it sounds better than your defense?”
He looked toward Liam.
“Get out from under there.”
Liam made a small, terrified sound and curled smaller.
Madeline’s voice turned sharp for the first time.
“Do not order him.”
Jeffrey stared at her.
She had never used that tone with him in front of his mother.
Noelle set her glass down.
“You are forgetting yourself.”
Madeline looked at her mother-in-law, then at Cynthia, then at Jeffrey.
“No,” she said. “I found myself at the door.”
Her thumb pressed the recording button again to ensure the file saved before continuing.
Then she started a second recording.
Jeffrey noticed the movement.
His face paled.
“You already had it running.”
Madeline did not answer.
May you like
She did not need to.
Read Chapter 7 👉 Because Madeline did not trust one recording; she saved the first file before they could take the phone.
