Chapter 3 - THE WARNING HE HAD CALLED JEALOUSY
Tessa came back to the house that evening with a bandage near her hairline and her sister driving her.
Grant met her outside.
He did not ask her to enter.
Not because he blamed her.
Because he did not want Vivienne controlling the conversation.
“What did you mean by ‘again’?”
Tessa looked toward the upstairs window.
“Noah okay?”
“He’s sleeping.”
She exhaled.
Then she answered.
“The camera.”
Twice during the previous month, Tessa had noticed its view shifting away from places where Vivienne spent time with Noah.
The first time, Vivienne said the cleaning crew must have bumped it.
The second time, she blamed the mounting bracket.
Tessa had mentioned it to Grant.
He remembered.
He had been late for a meeting.
“You told me Vivienne was acting weird around the cameras.”
“I told you she was changing them.”
Grant felt shame heat his face.
“I didn’t believe you.”
“No.”
Tessa was not cruel about it.
That somehow made it worse.
“What else didn’t I believe?”
She hesitated.
Grant already knew he would hate the answer.
Vivienne had begun insisting that Tessa take longer breaks when she was home.
She would say she wanted “bonding time” with Noah.
Nothing unreasonable about that.
Except Noah became unusually distressed before those periods.
He sometimes cried when Vivienne entered the nursery.
He started reaching for Tessa whenever Vivienne tried to take him.
Grant had seen that.
Vivienne said it proved Tessa had made Noah too dependent on her.
Grant had agreed.
Tessa looked directly at him.
“Last week she told me I should start looking for another job.”
Grant frowned.
“She never told me that.”
“She said once you two were married, you wouldn’t need someone who still acted like Emma ran the house.”
Grant’s stomach tightened.
The wedding.
Vivienne had been pushing for a date.
Grant kept delaying.
He had told himself it was grief.
Vivienne called it fear.
Tessa reached into her bag.
She pulled out a printed nanny log.
Not dramatic evidence.
Feeding times.
Naps.
Diaper changes.
Medication.
Ordinary childcare records.
Then she pointed to three dates.
“Every time she was alone with him, his afternoon nap disappeared.”
“So?”
“She told you I was the reason he was overtired at dinner.”
Grant remembered those arguments.
Vivienne telling him Tessa had destroyed Noah’s schedule.
Tessa quietly saying that was not true.
Grant had sided with Vivienne.
The pattern was small.
Almost embarrassingly small.
Which made it believable.
Vivienne had been manufacturing tiny failures.
Enough to make Tessa look incompetent.
Grant looked back at his house.
May you like
He suddenly understood that what happened this afternoon might not have been an explosion.
It might have been an escalation.
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