Chapter 20: Play It

Sadie's POV

I shut the laptop with the flat of my hand, and my daughter's voice stopped in the middle of a word.

The loft went very quiet.

The red light on the camera was still on.

"That was a five-year-old girl," I said, to the lens. "Singing to a stuffed lamb in the dark."

"The lamb had a camera and a SIM card in it," I said. "Bree Hollander put it there two Christmases ago."

Bree laughed, a bright, brittle sound.

"She's upset," she said to the camera. "Everyone, she's been under so much pressure."

"Garner," I said.

Garner had been standing at the sound desk against the back wall, in the navy jacket, with his phone plugged into the mixer.

He had a cable in one hand.

He looked at me, and I nodded.

"Play it," I said.

My own voice came out of the loft's speakers, and it was low and tired and exact.

"Tell me why," I said, on the recording.

"Because you never knew what you had," said Bree's voice, filling the room.

The numbers in the corner of the monitor jumped.

I watched Bree's face as she heard herself.

She went white around the mouth.

"I put that in two years ago, behind the flour," her recorded voice said.

"Garner's lawyer asked me for something real, and I gave it to her."

"You gave her my breakdown."

"I gave her you at your most honest."

Bree lunged for the desk.

Garner stepped sideways and held the cable above his head.

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