Chapter 9
Evelyn moved toward the bedroom door.
Damon shifted to block her, then stopped when her phone lifted half an inch.
The smallest movement.
Enough.
Claire stepped away from the closet at last, still wrapped in the maternity coat as if it belonged to her grief now.
Evelyn looked at the coat.
“Take it off.”
Claire blinked.
“What?”
“My coat.”
Claire’s fingers tightened around the fabric.
“I’m not—”
“Take it off.”
Damon said, “Evelyn, don’t humiliate her.”
The room went silent after he said it.
Even Damon seemed to realize the absurdity too late.
Evelyn looked at him for a long moment.
Then at the bed.
Then at the lingerie.
Then at Claire wearing the coat meant for a pregnant woman preparing for winter.
“Humiliate her?” Evelyn asked.
Damon said nothing.
Claire slowly removed the coat and placed it over the chair.
Without it, she looked smaller.
Not innocent.
Just exposed.
Her ring flashed again.
Evelyn picked up the ultrasound from the dresser.
She placed it inside her leather shoulder bag with careful precision.
Then she looked at Damon.
“I’m going downstairs.”
His eyes narrowed.
“To do what?”
“To sit somewhere you cannot block a door without a camera seeing you.”
Claire covered her mouth.
Damon’s face darkened.
“You’re making me sound dangerous.”
Evelyn looked at his unfastened belt.
Then his outstretched hand.
Then the phone he had tried to take.
“You’re doing that without me.”
She stepped into the hallway.
The landing camera was there.
Small.
Black.
Silent.
Damon saw her glance at it.
So did Claire.
The hallway suddenly felt safer than the bedroom because the hallway could testify.
Evelyn stopped beneath the camera.
Her thumb hovered over the security app again.
Still no full log.
Still no final proof.
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But Damon and Claire stood in the bedroom doorway, both watching her hand like the next tap could end the lives they had planned around her blindness.
Read Chapter 10 👉 Because Evelyn reached the hallway camera before opening the evidence, and Damon finally understood the house was no longer on his side.
