Chapter 4 - The First Video Mason Could Barely Watch
The footage was reviewed in the presence of counsel.
Mason almost left after the first thirty seconds.
Rebecca made him stay.
“If Monday had to live through it, you can watch it.”
The clip began five minutes before Mason entered the nursery.
Jiso carried the iron into the room.
That detail destroyed any claim that the injury happened accidentally.
There had been no ironing board.
No clothes.
No reason for the iron to be there.
Monday entered seconds later.
She saw Jiso approaching the crib.
They argued.
The camera had no perfect audio from that angle, but enough words could be made out.
Monday:
“Put it down.”
Jiso:
“You don’t tell me what happens in this family.”
Then Lisa began crying.
Jiso leaned over the crib.
Monday rushed forward.
The rest matched the memory Mason would spend years wishing he could erase.
Jiso touched the iron to Lisa’s hand.
Monday kicked it away.
Monday lifted Lisa.
Jiso slapped Monday.
Then Mason entered.
The camera caught his face.
Pure fury.
No hesitation.
Jiso pointed.
Mason believed her.
He took Lisa.
Then kicked Monday into the rack.
Mason stared at the screen.
“Stop it.”
Rebecca paused the video.
Monday was not present.
Her attorney had already provided permission for the footage to be reviewed.
Mason put both hands over his face.
“I could’ve seriously hurt her.”
“Yes.”
Rebecca did not soften it.
Mason looked up.
“Why would Jiso do that to Lisa?”
“That’s a motive question. Evidence first.”
So they continued.
Earlier clips showed Jiso entering the nursery when Monday was downstairs.
Opening drawers.
Looking through the desk beside the crib.
Removing envelopes.
Once, she stood beneath the security camera and waved her hand in front of it.
Then she climbed onto a small stool and unplugged the network cable.
She smiled afterward.
Jiso thought she had killed the recording.
She had only killed the cloud connection.
The final clip from two nights earlier showed her carrying the black trust binder into the nursery and removing three documents.
Mason recognized one.
A quarterly statement from Claire’s family trust.
Another appeared to be a distribution request.
The third was impossible to identify.
Rebecca enlarged the image.
At the bottom of the document was Mason’s name.
And a signature.
Mason leaned closer.
“I didn’t sign that.”
“You’re certain?”
“Yes.”
“What was the amount?”
The video was too blurry.
Rebecca requested full trust-account statements.
Then Monday’s attorney sent a message.
Monday had remembered something else.
The week before Claire died, Claire placed an envelope in Monday’s hand.
She told her:
“If anything happens to me, don’t give this to Jiso.”
Monday had forgotten about it during the chaos after Claire’s death.
The envelope was still inside the locked document compartment of her apartment.
Mason stared at Rebecca.
“What’s in it?”
Rebecca closed the laptop.
“We’ll find out with everyone’s attorney present.”
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Mason understood why.
By then, nothing in his family was allowed to depend on trust alone.
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