Mark sat on the top step holding the tiny loose screw in his palm.
His heart beat rapidly as he realized what this meant.
If the railing was broken, Lily could have leaned against it and lost her balance.
Sarah might have been reaching out to grab her coat, not to push her.
Mark rubbed his face with both hands as guilt started to creep in.
He had yelled at Sarah without giving her a chance to explain.
He had thrown her out into the street like a common criminal.
He stood up quickly and walked toward his private home office downstairs.
He remembered that he had installed security cameras in the hallway months ago.
He opened his laptop and pulled up the home security software.
His fingers trembled as he logged into the cloud camera feed.
He rewound the footage to exactly three o'clock that afternoon.
The high-angle video showed the balcony landing clearly in sharp detail.
Mark watched as Lily ran down the upper hallway chasing a small ball.
The ball bounced off the wall and rolled toward the balcony railing.
Lily reached out to catch it and leaned her weight against the wooden post.
In the video, the banister gave way instantly under her light weight.
Sarah stepped out of the linen closet right at that exact second.
She saw Lily tilting backward over the steep marble drops.
Sarah dropped the armful of towels she was holding immediately.
She lunged forward with frantic speed to grab Lily's pink dress.
Her fingertips brushed the edge of the girl's skirt as Lily slipped through.
Sarah was trying to catch her, not push her.
Mark watched the footage three times in complete and utter shock.
Sarah had risked falling over the edge herself trying to save his daughter.
Mark: What have I done?
He slammed the laptop shut and grabbed his truck keys off the counter.
He sprinted out the front door into the cooling evening air.
He looked around the empty driveway in desperation.
Sarah's car was nowhere to be seen in the front yard.
He pulled out his phone and dialed her number immediately.
The call went straight to her automated voicemail inbox.
Mark paced back and forth on the gravel driveway with rising panic.
He knew he had destroyed the trust of the best person in their lives.
He needed to find her before she left the city for good.