Chapter 4 - CHILD LOGIC
Marcus felt her small arm move against his neck.
He looked down at her face.
Her eyelids were red, swollen, eyelashes matted with tears.
"Sweetheart?" he murmured, his tone shifting instantly from razor-sharp rage to fragile gentleness.
Maya didn't lower her arm.
She kept pointing at the high ceiling corner above the stainless-steel refrigerator.
A small, black dome camera sat mounted into the drywall.
A tiny red light flickered on its rim.
"She does it every day, daddy," Maya whispered.
Her voice was tiny.
It sounded far too small for the massive kitchen.
Marcus froze.
"What?"
"She locks me in the laundry room," Maya hiccuped, her chest trembling against his.
"And she always turns that camera off first."
Silence descended on the room.
Heavy.
Suffocating.
Vanessa’s breath hitched in her throat.
Her arms slowly uncrossed, dropping to her sides.
"Maya, stop lying!" Vanessa spat, her voice trembling now with an underlying tremor of panic.
"She's making things up, Marcus! She has an overactive imagination!"
Maya snuggled deeper into her father's neck.
She pulled her broken plastic bunny out of her pocket.
She offered it to Marcus’s free hand.
"The bunny heard it," she whispered softly.
May you like
"It was very dark in there."
"I told the bunny you were coming home soon."
