She stepped closer.
“And he believes me, not you.”
That was when the father moved.
One work boot struck the tile.
The sound was not loud.
But inside the quiet kitchen, it might as well have been a gunshot.
His wife froze.
The little girl looked up first.
Her eyes widened.
“Dad?”
The stepmother turned slowly.
Every trace of irritation vanished from her face so quickly that the father nearly wondered whether he had imagined it.
Nearly.
“What are you doing home?”
she asked.
He did not answer immediately.
He held his phone in one hand.
His gray work uniform was dusty from a maintenance site.
His braided hair was tied behind his head.
His face looked different from the man who had left for work before sunrise.
Not angry yet.
Worse.
Still.
His wife forced a smile.
“We were just cleaning.”
The little girl looked at him.
Then toward the floor.
The father raised his phone.
“Not anymore.”
His wife’s smile disappeared.
“What does that mean?”
“Her teacher called me.”
The girl’s head rose.
The stepmother glanced toward her.
Only for a fraction of a second.
But the father saw it.
Fear.
Not fear of him.
Fear of what the child might have said.
He continued.
“And the kitchen camera recorded everything.”
The stepmother’s face changed.
Not dramatically.
A tiny loss of color.
A pause before she answered.
“The camera?”
“Yes.”
“You told me that thing stopped saving footage months ago.”
“I thought it did.”
She looked toward the small security camera above the pantry entrance.
Its indicator was glowing.
Then she looked back at him.
“You came home early because a teacher called and because you watched ten minutes of household discipline?”
The father’s jaw tightened.
“Ten minutes?”
His wife folded her arms.
“However long you watched.”
“I watched forty-seven.”
That ended her confidence.
The girl stared at him.
The stepmother said nothing.
The father walked toward his daughter.
His wife stepped slightly between them.
It was almost unconscious.
He noticed.
“Move.”
His wife’s eyebrows rose.
“Excuse me?”
“I want to talk to my daughter.”
“We’re all talking.”
“No.”
His voice remained quiet.
“I said move.”