We stayed another while.
After all, I didn’t want to turn tail and run whenever something unpleasant happened. I needed to get back out, and Sophie deserved it, too.
“You looked like you were going to leave.”
When Oliver finished and fell asleep against me, I tucked the blanket around him and watched Sophie rebuild the side of the moat she had kicked in when she stood up.
After a minute, I said,
“You know you did not have to do that.”
She did not look up.
“You looked like you were going to leave,” she said.
“And she was pointing the phone at Oliver.”
That landed harder than Karen’s voice ever could have.
Sophie kept pressing wet sand into place.
“And she was pointing the phone at Oliver.”
I swallowed.
“I know.”
She nodded once, still focused on the wall of her castle.
The next day, while Oliver slept on my chest, I started checking local groups online.
“I wanted to finish.”
On the drive home, she asked whether babies get hungry faster in the sun and whether sand counts as part of a sandwich if it gets inside your lunch.
I thought that was the end of it.
The next day, while Oliver slept on my chest, I started checking local groups online.
I hated myself for it even while I did it.
I didn’t know what would be visible in the clip.
I searched the neighborhood page. Then the town page. Then two community groups I had not opened in months. I kept thinking maybe Karen had posted the video already, maybe strangers were arguing over my body and my son while I folded laundry in silence.
I didn’t know what would be visible in the clip.
My face.
Sophie’s face.
Oliver’s head under the blanket.
Late that night, I got a message from a woman whose profile picture I vaguely recognized.
By evening I had found nothing, which did not calm me nearly as much as it should have.
Late that night, I got a message from a woman whose profile picture I vaguely recognized from the beach. She said she had seen Karen recording before Sophie walked over. She also said Karen had been confronted by more than one person after leaving, and by the time she reached the parking lot she seemed more interested in escaping than posting anything.
It was not proof.
