Chapter 5 - REVELATION IN BLACK AND WHITE
Marcus looked from the broken plastic toy in his palm up to the black dome on the ceiling.
Then his eyes shifted to Vanessa.
Her face had drained of color.
The pristine beige of her silk blouse seemed to make her skin look sickly, washed out under the harsh white lights.
"You turned the camera off?" Marcus asked.
His voice wasn't loud.
It was almost a whisper.
"I... the Wi-Fi drops out sometimes!" Vanessa stammered.
She took a step backward toward the hallway exit.
"You know how terrible the signal is in the back of the house!"
"She's confused, Marcus!"
"She locks herself in places when she gets overwhelmed!"
Marcus slowly set Maya down on the edge of the marble island.
He kept his hand on her back.
"Stay right here, baby," he said softly.
He reached into his inner suit pocket.
He pulled out a sleek silver smartphone.
His thumb tapped the screen three times.
He opened an app that wasn't connected to the home’s central Wi-Fi unit.
It was an independent, cellular-linked security network.
One he had installed himself two months ago when Maya first started flinching at sudden noises.
Vanessa watched his thumb move across the glass.
Her jaw dropped slightly.
"What are you looking at?" she asked, her voice high-pitched now.
"The ceiling camera runs on the house hub," Marcus said quietly.
He didn't look up from the screen.
"You knew where the breaker was."
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"You knew how to kill the feed."
He turned the phone screen toward her.
