“Where did she get the recordings?” I asked.
“She said Ben gave them to her.”
Ben turned pale.
“I never did.”
Then he remembered an old tablet we had used as a baby monitor. Diane borrowed it when Sophie was an infant and returned it weeks later.
The recordings must have remained stored on it.
“Why did the agency send the checks?” Ben asked.
Julia laughed bitterly.
“To protect their rating.”
The agency had received complaints from other placements, though not all involved Diane.
Instead of investigating anything that could lead to public accusations, it quietly paid employees to leave.
“They told me families pay for discretion,” Julia said. “They said nannies who caused scandals never worked again.”
“So everyone stayed silent,” I said.
“Most of us were scared.”
By the time Diane arrived the next afternoon, we had a plan.
Ben wore the wig and glasses he had used for the agency interview. From a distance, he looked surprisingly convincing as Megan.
I hid my car several blocks away and waited in the guest bedroom closet with my phone recording.
Sophie was spending the day with my sister.
Diane entered through the side door without knocking.
She called softly, “Hello?”
