By the next afternoon, Clara was released on temporary bail paid by a local legal aid charity.
She walked out of the police station with her head held high despite the cruel looks from strangers.
She returned directly to her small apartment down the street from the Vance estate.
While hanging up her damp maid dress to dry, her hand bumped against a tiny secret pocket.
Inside the black uniform dress, she felt a small, hard object she had completely forgotten about.
It was a small black remote control for the mansion's secondary wildlife security system.
Mark Vance had installed hidden high-definition cameras in the trees to watch wild deer near the pool.
The main house security system was controlled by Victoria, but this private feed was different.
It saved every single recorded video frame directly to a tiny internal memory card in the remote.
Clara's hands trembled with sudden hope as she pressed the small power button on the black device.
The tiny LCD screen flickered to life, showing clear full-color video footage from yesterday afternoon.
Clara watched the video play with tears of pure relief welling up in her eyes.
The camera captured Victoria looking around sneaky before shoving the stroller into the deep water.
It showed Clara sprinting across the patio and leaping high into the air to save Emma.
The visual evidence was completely clear, undeniable, and impossible for anyone to fake or dispute.
Clara wrapped her fingers tightly around the small remote control as a new courage filled her heart.
She was not going to run away like a scared animal from Victoria's terrible lies.
She knew that Mark Vance was hosting a massive charity gala at the estate that very evening.
All the city's wealthy leaders, judges, and news reporters would be gathering on that same patio.
Clara put on a clean dress, slipped the remote into her purse, and headed back to the mansion.