I climbed down.
My hands shook so violently I almost dropped it.
Ryan shouted through the door.
“Vanessa, open up. You’re making this into something it isn’t.”
I looked at Claire.
She looked just as frightened as I felt.
“What exactly isn’t it?” I yelled.
“I record our room sometimes.”
“Without telling me.”
“You’re my wife!”
For a second, I genuinely wondered whether I had misheard him.
“What does that have to do with anything?”
“We’re married.”
“That doesn’t mean you own me.”
“I never said I owned you.”
“You secretly filmed me in my bedroom.”
“It wasn’t for anyone else.”
His grandfather’s voice came from downstairs.
“That’s not true.”
Everything went silent.
Ryan stopped pounding.
I opened the bedroom door.
Grandpa stood at the bottom of the staircase.
He suddenly looked twenty years older.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
He swallowed.
“He’s shown me things before.”
Ryan shouted,
“Grandpa!”
I looked at him.
“What things?”
“Pictures.”
“Of me?”
He nodded.
My knees nearly gave way.
“How many?”
“I don’t know.”
“Of Claire?”
He quickly shook his head.
“Not that I know of.”
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