Chapter 9 - The Night I Couldn’t Remember
Daniel’s answer came immediately.
“Nothing.”
Too fast.
Too clean.
My mother moved closer to me.
“Jennifer?”
I could see the night clearly now.
Lily had been five weeks old.
I had been exhausted.
Daniel had arrived home unusually attentive.
He had made tea.
He had told me to sit down.
I remembered drinking half the cup.
Then nothing until after midnight.
When I woke, Lily was asleep in her bassinet.
Daniel had been sitting nearby with his phone.
At the time, I thought he was being kind.
Now I remembered something else.
My phone had been on the coffee table.
Recording.
Propped against a stack of books.
I had asked him about it.
He said he had been filming Lily.
“What did you record that night?”
Daniel looked at me.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Yes, you do.”
David raised a hand.
“Jennifer, don’t question him further.”
But I could not stop.
“You gave me tea.”
“I make you tea all the time.”
“I fell asleep.”
“You were exhausted.”
“And you recorded me.”
“I recorded Lily.”
Chloe looked sick.
She opened her messages.
“I have something.”
Daniel shouted, “Chloe!”
She flinched.
Then she continued scrolling.
“There.”
She handed the phone to David.
He read silently.
“What does it say?” I asked.
David’s jaw tightened.
He showed me.
Daniel had messaged Chloe that night.
She’s out.
Thirty minutes later:
Got enough footage tonight.
Then:
She won’t even remember how bad she looked.
My mother gasped.
I felt the ballroom tilt.
David steadied my arm.
“Sit down.”
“No.”
I refused.
I wanted to look Daniel in the face.
“What did you give me?”
“Nothing.”
Robert stepped toward his son.
“You answer her.”
“I said nothing.”
Chloe started crying.
“I might know.”
We all turned.
She wiped her cheek.
“Two days before that message, Daniel asked whether the medication I took for insomnia during my divorce was still in my apartment.”
Daniel stared at her.
“You’re lying.”
“I told him I had stopped taking it.”
“What medication?” David asked.
Chloe named it.
David immediately typed something into his phone.
Then he looked at me.
“Jennifer, did you ever have a prescription for that?”
“No.”
“Did Daniel?”
“No.”
He turned to Chloe.
“Do you still have the bottle?”
She swallowed.
“No.”
Daniel started walking toward the exit.
Robert blocked him.
“Where are you going?”
“I’m leaving.”
David stepped forward.
“You may want to stay.”
Daniel laughed.
“You can’t detain me.”
“No.”
David glanced toward the entrance.
“But they can.”
Two uniformed police officers had entered the ballroom.
Everyone turned.
Daniel stared at me.
“You called the police?”
I shook my head.
Then Chloe whispered:
May you like
“I did.”
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