Chapter 6 - The Unseen Evidence
As Derek held Noah close, a high-pitched vibration hummed across the room.
Beside the leg of the coffee table, Travis’s personal smartphone lay face-up on the hardwood floor, vibrating continuously as a high-priority notification lit up the screen.
Derek’s sharp eyes darted toward the device. Keeping one hand firmly resting on Noah’s back, Derek leaned over and picked up Travis’s phone from the floor.
The screen faced exclusively toward Derek’s face—angled completely away from Travis, Noah, and any potential onlookers.
Derek looked down at the display for only one second.
In that single second, the warm, protective expression on Derek’s face vanished instantly. His eyes widened in absolute shock, the color draining from his cheeks as his breath caught in his throat. Whatever was displayed on that screen—whether a text, a document, an image, or a live notification—went far beyond a simple domestic dispute.
Slowly, almost mechanically, Derek raised his head. He looked up from the screen and locked eyes with Travis, who was still sitting on the sofa.
Then Derek looked back down at four-year-old Noah cradled in his arm, as if connecting the dots to a sinister reality he had never imagined.
Derek whispered, his voice trembling with sheer disbelief and newfound horror:
May you like
“What...?”
The moment Travis saw Derek’s reaction and realized which phone Derek was holding, Travis’s aggressive posture instantly vanished. His face turned paper-white, his eyes wide with utter panic as he realized his secret had just been exposed.
