Jason caught up with her outside.
“Emily, please! You have to trust me!”
She screamed:
“WHO IS WITH OUR DAUGHTER?”
Jason’s eyes filled with tears.
“No one is hurting Lily. I swear.”
“Then tell me the truth!”
He finally broke.
“The woman you heard… she isn’t my lover.”
Emily stared at him.
“Then who is she?”
Jason took out his phone and showed Emily a security recording from their apartment.
On the screen, Lily was hiding under her bed.
And standing in the bedroom doorway was a strange woman.
But then Emily noticed something.
The woman wasn’t threatening Lily.
She was protecting her.
Jason whispered:
“She came into the house because someone else was already there.”
Emily’s face went pale.
“Who?”
Jason looked at her.
“Your brother.”
Emily couldn’t breathe.
Her brother had died three years earlier.
Then the baby monitor crackled one more time.
Lily whispered:
“Mommy… he’s back.”
Emily looked at Jason in horror.
And from the monitor came a familiar voice:
“Emily… I’m sorry.”
It was her brother’s voice.
Jason reached for her hand.
“We need to get home. Now.”
Emily looked toward the dark street.
And for the first time, she understood…
The woman in the house had never been the danger.
She had been trying to save Lily.
