My body pulling backward.
My palm against the grate.
The expression on his face when I screamed.
He also knew whose name remained attached to the security account.
Mine.
For several seconds, neither of us spoke.
The guests began looking from the camera to Ivan.
His explanation had lasted less than a minute before the physical evidence above the door made it impossible to maintain.
“Turn it off,” he ordered.
I almost laughed.
Not because anything was funny, but because the command revealed how little he understood.
He still believed the problem was the camera watching him.
He did not understand that the real problem was what I had finally decided to do with everything I knew.
“Turn it off,” he repeated.
His voice was sharper now.
Cynthia looked at me with the same expectation she had carried all afternoon.
The executives waited.
The neighbors waited.
Everyone wanted to know whether I would obey him one more time.
