Sarah was in the kitchen preparing breakfast while Lily sat at the island.
Then Sarah reached into the pocket of her sweater.
She removed a small glass bottle, tipped her hand over Lily’s glass of orange juice, and slipped the bottle away again in one quick, practiced motion.
Someone who was not specifically looking for it might have missed it completely.
“Play that again,” Marcus said, very softly.
Ryan replayed the recording.
Marcus watched his wife put something into his daughter’s drink in his own kitchen.
He did not speak.
He barely moved.
Something inside him that had been trusting, human, and married went permanently cold.
Later, he would rarely describe what watching that clip felt like.
Some things did not improve through retelling.
He simply asked Ryan to continue.
There was something about the way Marcus handled everything from that point forward that he later believed mattered almost as much as the evidence itself.
