Chapter 14 - THE CAMERA CAME DOWN
Rachel lasted three weeks before asking Owen to remove the mezzanine security camera.
He misunderstood.
“I thought it made you feel safer.”
“It used to.”
“And now?”
Rachel looked at the small black lens.
“Now every time I see it, I remember needing technology to prove I wasn’t lying.”
Owen said nothing.
That afternoon he brought out a ladder.
Rachel watched him unscrew the camera.
No ceremony.
No speech.
He placed it in a box.
Then he asked:
“Do you want the others removed?”
“No.”
Just that one.
The camera that saved the truth had also become a symbol of how little her word had initially meant.
Rachel needed it gone.
Later that evening Mia sat on the rug shaking a wooden rattle.
Owen watched from the kitchen.
Rachel noticed him staring.
“What?”
“She’s almost walking.”
“She’s nine months old, Owen.”
“I said almost.”
Rachel smiled despite herself.
Then his expression changed.
“My mother asked through her attorney if she can send Mia something for Christmas.”
Rachel stopped smiling.
“What?”
“A gift. No direct contact.”
“And what did you say?”
“I said I’d ask you.”
Months earlier, Owen might have decided.
Or agreed first and explained later.
Now he asked.
Rachel appreciated that.
It did not make the answer easier.
“I don’t know.”
“That’s okay.”
She looked at him suspiciously.
“You’re not going to argue?”
“No.”
“Defend her?”
“No.”
“Tell me she’s still your mother?”
“She is.”
Rachel waited.
Owen continued.
“And Mia is still our daughter.”
Something inside Rachel loosened.
Not completely.
Maybe never completely.
“Give me a few days.”
Owen nodded.
That night Rachel stood beneath the empty space where the camera had been.
There was a small mark in the wood.
Proof something had been there.
May you like
Proof removal did not erase history.
Maybe that was true of marriages too.
