Chapter Two: The Camera in the Corner
Lucas crossed the room so fast that Cassandra barely had time to step back.
He dropped to his knees beside Ava and placed one hand behind her shoulders.
“Don’t move,” he said, his voice shaking. “Tell me where it hurts.”
Ava tried to answer, but fear locked her throat. She could only hold her stomach and breathe in short, broken gasps.
Lucas looked up at Cassandra. “What happened?”
Cassandra pressed a hand to her chest, suddenly looking wounded. “She became hysterical. I tried to calm her down, but she slipped.”
Ava closed her eyes.
There it was. The lie, polished and ready.
Lucas turned back to his wife. “Ava?”
“She brought papers,” Ava whispered.
Cassandra’s expression hardened. “She doesn’t know what she’s saying.”
Lucas’s eyes moved to the coffee table.
The folder was still there.
He reached for it with one hand while keeping the other on Ava’s shoulder. As he read the first page, his face changed from fear to disbelief, then to something colder.
“What is this?” he asked.
Cassandra lifted her chin. “Protection.”
“Protection from my pregnant wife?”
“Protection from a woman who is manipulating you.”
Lucas stared at her. “You came into my home and asked my wife to sign away her rights?”
“I came to save you from a disaster.”
Ava shifted, trying to sit up, and cried out softly. Lucas immediately dropped the folder and helped her lean against him.
“We’re going to the hospital,” he said.
Cassandra stepped forward. “Lucas, wait. Think before you create a scene. If an ambulance comes here, reporters will—”
“Reporters?” His voice rose. “Ava is hurt.”
“She is embarrassed,” Cassandra insisted. “She fell because she was emotional.”
Lucas looked down at Ava’s trembling hand. He saw the faint red mark around her wrist. He saw her phone half-hidden between the sofa cushions. He saw the folder Cassandra had no explanation for.
Then his eyes lifted toward the ceiling.
In the corner above the living room window was a small security camera.
Lucas had installed it months ago after a delivery worker entered the wrong floor. Ava had teased him for being overprotective. He had almost forgotten it was there.
Cassandra noticed where he was looking.
Her face drained of color.
Lucas slowly reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. He opened the security app with his thumbprint.
“Lucas,” Cassandra said, her voice softer now, “you don’t need to do that.”
He did not answer.
The video loaded.
Ava watched his face as he replayed the last ten minutes. She did not need to see the screen to know what he was watching: Cassandra blocking her path, grabbing her wrist, the fall, the folder, the phone tossed away, the lie forming before Lucas even walked in.
Lucas’s jaw tightened.
Cassandra tried to step closer. “It doesn’t show everything.”
“No,” he said. “It shows enough.”
He hit one button and sent the clip to his attorney. Then he called 911.
Cassandra’s polished mask cracked completely.
“You would choose her over everyone who built your life?”
Lucas looked at Ava, then at the woman standing above them.
May you like
“She is my life,” he said. “And so is our child.”
For the first time, Cassandra had no answer.
