Chapter 4 - The Password Evan Never Mentioned
Evan admitted it ten minutes later.
He had given Janice access to Harper’s nursery monitor app.
Claire couldn’t speak at first.
“You did what?”
“My mother bought the system.”
“That’s not what I asked.”
“She wanted emergency access when she babysat.”
“So you gave her our login?”
“Her own administrator account.”
Claire stared at him.
“Without telling me.”
“I didn’t think it mattered.”
Harper babbled from her high chair between them.
The ordinary sound made the argument feel stranger.
Claire lowered her voice.
“She can see when Harper sleeps?”
“Yes.”
“When she wakes?”
“Yes.”
“When the monitor loses connection?”
Evan hesitated.
“Yes.”
Claire walked away before she said something she couldn’t take back.
The nursery-monitor system was supposed to reassure them after Harper had suffered a respiratory infection as an infant.
Instead, it had slowly become a source of terror.
Over four months, it had produced eight serious alerts.
Five happened at Janice’s house.
Two happened immediately after Harper returned from Janice’s.
One occurred at home.
Each time Janice told Claire the technology was unreliable.
Each time she simultaneously insisted Claire needed it because Claire was “too nervous to trust herself.”
Claire called the manufacturer.
The representative explained that support could provide account-access history and device error logs to the registered owners.
“Request everything,” Claire said.
Evan watched her.
“This is getting extreme.”
She turned.
“No. Extreme was your mother putting her shoe over something found in our child’s blanket.”
He flinched.
Claire called their pediatrician next.
Then she emailed Dr. Mercer.
Then she placed every burgundy blanket from Janice’s house into separate clean bags.
The cost of that decision arrived by afternoon.
Janice called Evan.
Claire could hear her through the phone.
“She needs psychiatric help.”
Evan walked into the bedroom and closed the door.
Claire stood in the hall holding Harper.
She could hear only pieces.
Postpartum anxiety.
Fixation.
Paranoia.
Protect Harper.
When Evan returned, Claire asked, “Did you defend me?”
He rubbed his face.
“I told her to stop.”
“That isn’t what I asked.”
He didn’t answer.
Claire picked up the overnight bag from the closet.
“Where are you going?”
“My sister’s.”
“Claire.”
“Until I understand what happened, Harper isn’t going back to your mother’s house.”
“You can’t just decide that.”
Claire looked at him.
“I’m her mother.”
“So I’m her father.”
“Then start acting like protecting her matters more than keeping your mother comfortable.”
She left.
Twenty minutes later, the monitor company emailed.
The account history contained something Claire had not expected.
May you like
Janice had logged into Harper’s monitor eleven times during nights she wasn’t babysitting.
Three logins happened minutes before alarms.
