He leaned against the doorframe.
“I never saw the room.”
“You never asked.”
“No.”
She closed the suitcase.
The nursery was at the end of the hall. Margaret had kept it locked. Amy had assumed the room was being renovated, but when Daniel tried the handle, it opened.
Inside, the walls were covered in pale gold wallpaper. A white crib stood beneath the window. There were boxes of tiny clothes stacked on a shelf, each one marked with a date. In the corner sat a rocking chair Amy had never seen before.
She stepped inside.
For a moment, the room looked beautiful.
Then she saw the files on the desk.
Daniel went pale.
Amy opened the first folder. It contained ultrasound copies, medical records, notes about her work schedule, and photographs of her leaving the clinic. The dates began three months earlier.
Underneath them was a letter addressed to Margaret from a private investigator.
Pregnancy confirmed. Subject appears isolated from husband. Recommended approach: establish pattern of emotional volatility before birth.
Amy’s breath stopped.
Daniel took the papers from her hand and read them.
A sound escaped him, low and wounded.
On the desk lay a second envelope. Amy opened it.
Inside was a photograph of her asleep on the sofa, one hand curved over her stomach. The image had been taken from the hallway.
She remembered that night. She had woken to the feeling of being watched.
Daniel looked at the photograph and then at her.
“I did not know.”
“You were in the house.”
“I did not know.”
“You were here.”
He nodded, tears gathering in his eyes.
Amy held the photograph between them.
“This is what your mother did while you were beside me.”
He covered his mouth with one hand.
The room seemed to shrink around them.
Then something moved beneath the blanket on the rocking chair.
Amy froze.
Daniel reached for her, but she stepped away. A small black device slid from the folds of fabric and fell onto the floor.
A recording unit.
Its red light was still blinking.
Daniel stared at it.
The final hidden truth was not in a file.
It was in the air around them.
Amy crouched and picked up the device.
A voice emerged from its speaker, distorted by static.
