Chapter 2: What Mason Saved
The first recording was only forty seconds long.
It was enough.
Lily was sitting in the corner of the kitchen, arms wrapped around her knees, while Vanessa stood over her.
"You don't belong here," Vanessa said.
"You never did."
Lily was three years old in that video.
My hands were shaking so hard I almost dropped the tablet.
I looked at Vanessa.
She wasn't sorry.
She was calculating.
"That was taken out of context," she said.
Mason stepped between us.
"There are eleven more," he said quietly.
"I saved all of them."
Vanessa's expression changed.
Something behind her eyes went cold.
"You little traitor," she whispered.
I pulled Lily close and told her to go to her room.
She ran without looking back.
Then Vanessa said something I was not prepared for.
She said the recordings wouldn't matter.
She said she had already spoken to a lawyer — and that I would never get full custody because of something she had found.
She reached into her bag and placed a folder on the table.
I didn't touch it.
May you like
But Mason looked at it, then looked at me, and his face told me everything.
Whatever was inside that folder — she had been planning this for a long time.
