Victoria's confident smile faltered for a tiny fraction of a second.
She quickly covered her anxiety by taking another slow sip of wine.
Victoria: The outdoor security cameras are currently offline for routine maintenance.
Sarah: How convenient for you, Victoria!
Mark: Let us all get inside before Leo catches hypothermia.
They walked through the grand entryway into the warm tiled foyer.
Mark wrapped Leo in a thick blanket from the living room sofa.
Sarah stood in the center of the room with her arms crossed.
Sarah: I am calling the police and child protective services right now.
Victoria: Go ahead and call whoever you want, Sarah.
Victoria: It is your word against mine, and Mark trusts his wife.
Mark looked down at the floor feeling torn between both women.
He knew Sarah loved her son more than anything in the world.
Yet Victoria had been a loving partner since their high-society wedding.
Mark: Let us not make rash decisions before we check the system.
Mark walked over to the smart-home control panel on the hallway wall.
Victoria followed close behind him with a sudden look of worry.
Victoria: Darling, I told you the system is undergoing an update today.
Mark: The indoor system updates automatically at midnight, Victoria.
Mark typed in his four-digit passcode on the bright touch screen panel.
The system hummed to life and displayed active video feeds from around the home.
Victoria reached out quickly to press the power button on the panel.
Victoria: You do not need to check this right now, Mark.
Sarah grabbed Victoria's wrist and pulled her away from the wall screen.
Sarah: Leave the screen alone and let him look at the footage!
Mark clicked on the motion-activated alerts from the last thirty minutes.
A clip popped up from the patio camera labeled active and recording.
Victoria turned pale as the video clip began playing on the screen.