I turned to look at him fully then. His face was pale, and his eyes were fixed on the floor.
That’s when I stopped dismissing it.
The next day, I installed a small hidden camera in his room.
I didn’t tell him.
I didn’t want to scare him more. I told myself I was doing it for peace of mind, that once I watched a full night of empty footage, I would finally be able to reassure both of us.
That night, I barely slept.
I lay in my bed staring at the ceiling, jumping at every noise in the house, every shifting pipe, and every passing car outside. A part of me felt ridiculous. Another part of me could not shake the image of Sam lying awake in his bed, eyes open in the dark, waiting for something I could not see.
The next morning, as soon as he left for school, I sat down and opened the recording.
My hands were shaking.
At first, there was nothing.
