“I need you at the house.”
A pause.
“Now?”
“Yes.”
“Marcus, I have the florist at nine-thirty and the stationer after that.”
“Cancel them.”
Something in his voice reached her.
“What happened?”
“Come home.”
He ended the call.
I expected him to tell me to leave before she arrived.
Instead, he said, “This concerns your property and your reputation. You can stay for the conversation, or you can go. Your choice.”
I stayed.
Vanessa arrived twenty-seven minutes later in the same cream coat from the footage.
She came into the security room already irritated. “You could have told me this was an emergency.”
Then she saw me.
Her eyes moved to Priya.
Then the monitor.
The color left her face so quickly that I knew before Marcus said anything she understood exactly which afternoon was on the screen.
“What is this?” she asked.
Marcus clicked play.
Vanessa watched herself walk into the supply closet and pick up my phone.
She gave a short laugh.
“Oh. That.”
I felt something hard settle inside me.
“You remember it?” I asked.
She looked at me as though my speaking were an inconvenience.
“I thought it was mine.”
Marcus pointed toward the footage. “Your phone is black. Hers has a yellow case with a rabbit sticker.”
Vanessa’s mouth tightened.
