Chapter 13 - The Birthday Video
The unknown sender contacted me again at seven the next morning.
This time, there was no threat. There was a video file.
I watched it once without sound, then sent it to Nina. The footage showed Lorraine’s kitchen on the night before my birthday. Tabitha stood at the counter, arranging pastries into a box. Garrett entered carrying the mixing bowl.
The angle was crooked, as if someone had placed a phone behind a vase.
Lorraine pointed toward the bowl. “Cold enough?”
Garrett said, “It’s ridiculous.”
“Ridiculous is what she calls every request.”
Tabitha laughed. “She’ll be too embarrassed to fight when everyone is here.”
Garrett did not laugh.
“What if she refuses?” he asked.
Lorraine turned toward him. “Then you remind her that the children have nowhere to go.”
The video ended.
I felt sick—not because the plan surprised me, but because Garrett had looked uncertain. He had not been eager. He had also not stopped it.
Nina called. “We need the original file and information about how it was obtained.”
“I don’t know who sent it.”
“Ask no questions. Preserve the messages.”
“It proves they planned the humiliation.”
“It may support your account of the event. We’ll authenticate it before relying on it.”
I watched the video again. Lorraine’s words about the children echoed in my mind. The family had not merely wanted breakfast. They had wanted leverage, witnesses, and a scene in which refusing them would look cruel.
Garrett called at nine.
“You received a video,” he said.
“Yes.”
“Where did you get it?”
“Who sent it?”
“I don’t know.”
He breathed hard. “Delete it.”
“Why?”
“Because it was recorded illegally.”
“That is for the appropriate authorities and court to determine.”
“Paige, please.”
“Did you plan to throw the water?”
Long silence.
“I agreed to wake you,” he said. “I didn’t know Mom would tell Tabitha to film.”
“You knew they were filming?”
“I saw the phone.”
“And you did nothing.”
“I thought she would stop.”
“You keep describing the moment you could have acted as though it happened to you.”
“I was trying to keep peace.”
“Peace would have been letting me sleep.”
His voice broke. “I was afraid.”
“Of Lorraine?”
“Of losing everyone.”
I looked at the video frame where he stood holding the bowl. “You lost me because you kept choosing them.”
He ended the call.
Later, Tabitha sent a message: I’m the one who recorded it. I’m sorry. I didn’t send it to hurt you.
I asked why she had recorded it.
She answered: Mom told me we needed proof that you were refusing to help. I thought if I filmed the conversation, she couldn’t twist it. Then I realized she was the one twisting it.
I told her to send the original file to Nina and not to contact me about evidence again.
May you like
Before I left for work, I stood in front of the mirror. The woman looking back at me had tired eyes and a faint water stain still visible on the sleeve of her favorite robe. I had thought the video would make me feel vindicated.
Instead, it made me grieve the marriage I had believed I was living in.
