Chapter 6: The Morning After
Daniel picked up on the second ring even though it was almost eight in the evening.
I told him everything.
I talked for twenty minutes without stopping.
When I finished, there was a short silence on his end.
"Don't touch the camera," he said.
"Don't transfer the files yourself, don't email them, don't upload them anywhere.
I'm going to send someone tomorrow morning to handle the chain of custody properly."
"Okay."
"The phone records from the day of Diane's accident — you said you can get those?"
"Her phone was on my account.
I never closed it.
I kept paying it." I hadn't been able to explain that to myself until now.
"I kept paying it for two years."
Another silence.
"Ryan.
Those records could be significant."
"I know."
"I'm going to make some calls tonight.
Child protective services will need to be involved given what's on that recording.
I want to get ahead of that rather than have it come from another direction."
"What happens to Lily?"
"She stays with you.
You're the biological parent, there's no competing custody claim, and you have documented evidence of harm.
She's not going anywhere."
I let out a breath I'd been holding for hours.
"What about my wife?"
"She left voluntarily tonight?"
"Yes."
"Good.
That helps.
I'll have a temporary protective order drafted in the morning.
She won't be able to return to the property." He paused.
"And your brother — was he ever alone with Lily?"
The question sat in my chest like a stone.
"I don't know," I said.
"I genuinely don't know."
"We'll need to find out."
After I hung up, I sat in the dark for a while.
The house was quiet.
Through the living room doorway I could see the edge of the couch where Lily was sleeping, one small foot visible beneath the blanket.
Mrs.
Patterson had gone home an hour earlier, but she'd written her number on a piece of paper and left it on the kitchen counter.
*Any time*, she'd written underneath it.
*Day or night.*
I went and checked on Lily.
She was deeply asleep, one hand curled under her chin.
Her face in sleep looked exactly like her mother's face.
It always had.
I thought about what Diane must have known.
What she'd been trying to reach me to say when she made that call.
What she'd wanted to protect Lily from — and how she'd never gotten the chance.
I pulled the blanket up a little higher.
"I've got her," I said quietly.
"I'm sorry it took me this long."
My phone buzzed on the coffee table.
A text from Marcus: *We need to talk.
There are things you don't know about the accident.
Things that will change how you see all of this.
Meet me tomorrow.*
I read it twice.
May you like
Then I set the phone face-down and didn't answer.
But I didn't sleep either.
