Chapter 2: Forty-Three Seconds
**— PART 2 —**
I opened the video with shaking hands.
It was forty-three seconds long.
The first few seconds showed Merritt sitting quietly, her device running normally.
Then Sutton walked into frame.
She grabbed the equipment cord without a word and yanked it hard.
Twice.
Merritt grabbed for it.
"Don't," Sutton snapped.
"I'm trying to record in here and that sound is ruining everything."
The device hit the floor.
Merritt's breathing changed immediately.
And Thatcher — standing less than four feet away — raised his phone and kept filming.
He never moved toward her.
Not once.
My hands were still shaking when I forwarded the file to Vaughn.
He called back within minutes.
"Winslow.
This isn't just a civil matter anymore."
I already knew that.
What I didn't know yet was what Hayes had seen before he called me that afternoon.
When I finally reached him, his voice was low and tight.
"Sutton did it on purpose," he said.
"She'd done it before.
Smaller things.
Testing how far she could go."
I sat very still.
"How many times, Hayes?"
He went quiet for too long.
"Hayes.
How many times?"
He said a number.
And something inside me went completely cold.
---
What Winslow discovered next — about how long this had been happening, and who else in that family already knew — is far worse than anyone expected.
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