I Came Home in Secret to Catch the Woman I Trusted. The Cameras Revealed the Monster Had Been Sleeping Beside Me.105
We all looked at her.
My nine-year-old daughter was gripping my shirt.
Her voice trembled, but she kept going.
“She does it when you’re gone.”
My lungs stopped working.
“Emma?”
Claire stepped forward.
“Sweetheart, don’t make things up because you’re upset.”
Emma flinched.
I noticed.
So did Maria.
I put Lily down and moved Emma behind me.
“Don’t speak to her.”
Claire’s mouth tightened.
“Alex, children exaggerate.”
“How long?”
Emma stared at the floor.
“Daddy…”
I crouched.
“How long has Claire been treating you like this?”
Emma glanced at Maria.
Maria gave her the smallest nod.
“Since before Christmas.”
Christmas had been eight months ago.
I felt physically sick.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
Emma’s answer was barely audible.
“Because she said you’d choose her.”
Something inside me cracked.
Claire scoffed.
“Oh, please.”
Emma raised her voice.
“She said you’d already chosen her because you gave her Mommy’s room!”
My face burned.
After Sophie died, I hadn’t entered our bedroom for almost a year.
Eventually, I renovated it.
Claire had moved into the suite six months earlier.
At the time, it felt like acceptance.
Like I was finally allowing myself to live again.
To my daughters, it had meant something different.
I saw that now.
“Emma,” I whispered, “I would never choose anyone over you.”
Claire rolled her eyes.
Maria saw it.
So did I.
“Get out,” I said.
Claire stared at me.
“What?”
“Get your things and get out of my house.”
“You don’t mean that.”
“I have never meant anything more.”
“Alex, we’re getting married.”
“No.”
Her face hardened.
“We have contracts signed. Vendors paid. Invitations sent.”
“Then I’ll lose the money.”
“My family has already flown people in from Europe.”
“I don’t care.”
“You’re humiliating me.”
My voice dropped.
“You threatened my employee and frightened my children inside their own home.”
“I disciplined them.”
“They are not yours to discipline.”
Her expression changed.
Something ugly surfaced.
It lasted only a second.
But I saw it.
“You’re making a mistake.”
“That might be the first true thing you’ve said today.”
Her eyes narrowed.
Then she looked at Maria.
“This is because of her.”
“No. This is because of you.”
Maria remained silent.
Claire pointed at her.
“She has been waiting for this.”
“Stop.”
“You think she’s some saint?”
“I said stop.”
Claire laughed.
“Ask her.”
Maria stiffened.
Claire’s smile returned.
“Ask Maria what your wife told her the night before she died.”
I turned toward Maria.
She went white.
“Maria?”
Claire laughed again.
“Go ahead.”
Maria’s eyes filled.
“Not in front of the children.”
That sentence scared me more than Claire’s threat.
I straightened.
“What did Sophie tell you?”
Maria looked toward Emma and Lily.
“Please.”
I called the girls’ tutor, who was waiting in the study, and asked her to take them to the garden.
Emma refused at first.
“I don’t want to leave you.”
“You’re not leaving me.”
“What if she hurts you?”
Claire made a disgusted sound.
I looked at her.
“Say one more thing and you can explain yourself from the driveway.”
Emma finally took Lily’s hand.
Before leaving, Lily looked up at the shelf.
“My bunny.”
I reached for it.
Claire moved.
It was almost nothing.
Half a step.
A twitch.
But I saw it.
So did Maria.
I took the stuffed rabbit down and handed it to Lily.
Claire’s eyes followed it.
For the first time since I entered the room, she looked genuinely frightened.
Not angry.
Not embarrassed.
