Chapter 3 - THE BLUE TAPE
Claire left the hospital with Noah.
Daniel did not go with them.
She stayed with her older sister, Rebecca, in Rye.
By sunrise, Rebecca’s dining table had become a command center.
No dramatic detective board.
Just ordinary things.
Claire’s laptop.
Photographs.
Hospital discharge papers.
The wedding venue incident report.
The stroller warranty card.
Emails.
And one question.
What exactly had been attached to Noah’s diaper bag for six weeks?
Claire searched her messages with Daniel.
She found the first mention immediately.
June 3.
Daniel:
Mom sent over one of the new location modules. I put it in Noah’s bag. Free AirTag upgrade basically.
Claire had replied:
Does it collect anything?
Daniel:
Nothing we care about. Don’t worry.
Claire stopped.
Nothing we care about.
She searched again.
June 17.
Claire had complained that the diaper bag smelled “weirdly plastic.”
Daniel replied:
Probably the wipes container.
June 29.
She sent him a photograph of a faint brown mark on the inside lining.
Daniel:
Coffee spill?
Claire did not drink coffee around Noah’s bag.
She had accepted the explanation anyway.
Rebecca read over her shoulder.
“Those matter.”
“I don’t know what they mean.”
“They mean you noticed things.”
Claire looked at her sister.
“I noticed things and then let him explain them.”
Rebecca did not comfort her with something meaningless.
She simply said, “You trusted your husband.”
At ten that morning, Claire retained an attorney named Maya Bennett who specialized in complex family and corporate disputes.
Maya immediately separated the problems.
Noah’s safety.
The marriage.
The product.
The company.
“Do not let everybody turn those into one argument,” she said.
Claire nodded.
Maya arranged for an independent electrical-safety engineer to examine the damaged module once the venue and insurer completed the appropriate transfer paperwork.
Nothing would be opened in somebody’s kitchen.
Nothing would be casually discarded.
The chain of custody mattered now.
Then Maya asked the question Claire had been avoiding.
“What is Daniel’s role at Aster Vale?”
“He’s chief operating officer.”
“And product development?”
“Not officially.”
“Does he sit on the internal launch committee?”
Claire did not know.
That answer embarrassed her.
She had attended company Christmas parties.
Fundraisers.
Product launches.
She knew where Evelyn sat at board dinners.
She knew almost nothing about what Daniel actually signed.
That afternoon, Maya obtained a copy of the field-pilot consent form Daniel had completed.
Claire read the participant name.
Noah Mercer.
Primary guardian approving participation:
Daniel Mercer.
Second parent:
Blank.
Claire stared.
Maya pointed farther down.
There was a checkbox.
Has another legal guardian objected to participation?
Daniel had checked:
NO.
Claire’s throat tightened.
She had not merely been omitted.
Her refusal had been converted into agreement.
Maya continued reading.
The product collected environmental information, movement data, charging patterns, temperature readings, and real-world performance information.
Claire looked up.
“He told me it was a tracker.”
Maya nodded.
Then she reached the device-identification page.
Every field unit had a lot number.
Noah’s registered unit ended in 6B-117.
Maya opened an email provided voluntarily by Aster Vale’s outside counsel after learning an infant had been near the ballroom incident.
An internal engineering notice had been distributed six days earlier.
Certain modules from lot 6B were placed on an engineering hold pending investigation of abnormal heat events.
Claire read the line twice.
“When did Daniel get this?”
Maya checked the distribution list.
Daniel’s company email was there.
So was Evelyn’s.
Six days.
Not hours.
Not the morning of the wedding.
Daniel had known Noah’s module belonged to a questioned batch almost a week earlier.
Claire’s hands went cold.
Then Maya pointed to another line.
Engineering had requested immediate suspension of all field use for affected units.
Claire looked at the blue-taped module Daniel had been carrying in his tuxedo.
“Then why did he still have another one?”
May you like
Maya did not guess.
She simply said, “That is what we find out next.”
