“Time to learn the rules of being a wife.” That was the first thing my husband said after our honeymoon ended—as he unbuckled his belt.

Part 2
Grant stared at the bookshelf as if the voice had come from inside the wall.
“Who is that?” I asked.
He didn’t answer. He tried to twist free, and I let go rather than wrestle him again. I moved between him and my phone.
“Ma’am?” the dispatcher said. “Officers are at your door. Can you get to them?”
Before I could answer, the speaker crackled.
“It’s Caroline,” the woman said. “His sister.”
I knew Caroline had helped Grant set up the cameras. He’d told me they were for the house while we traveled. I’d never heard her sound frightened before.
Grant snatched the speaker’s power cord from the wall. His phone buzzed in his pocket. He looked at the screen and swore.
“Open the door,” I told him.

He blocked the hallway. “First, tell me what Caroline said.”
Someone knocked hard. I called out that I was inside and that Grant had threatened me with a belt. He stepped back when the officers told him to move. I unlocked the door.
One officer took Grant into the hall. The other asked me to wait in the kitchen while she photographed the belt, the marks on my wrist, and the overturned gym bag. I told her about the camera and Caroline’s voice. She asked me to leave the equipment alone.
Through the doorway, I saw Grant trying to show the first officer something on his phone. “Watch the video,” he kept saying. “She put me on the floor.”
The officer took my account separately. I told her I’d restrained Grant after he swung at me and released him whenever I could safely move away.

I didn’t know what his video showed.
Caroline arrived while they were still there. She stopped just inside the door, looked at the belt, and covered her mouth.
“I found the older recording,” she told the officers. “That’s why I spoke through the camera.”
Grant shouted from the hall, “She stole my files!”
Caroline had the house system open on her phone. She said an older clip showed Grant testing the camera angle the day before our wedding. In it, he held the belt where it would be visible, then moved out of frame.
“That clip only shows him setting up a camera,” an officer said.
“I know,” Caroline replied. “There’s another file.”
Grant went silent.
Caroline looked at me. “He sent it to me during your honeymoon. I should have told you then.”

She turned her phone toward the officer, but I could see the thumbnail over her shoulder. Grant was standing in our living room with the same belt. Someone else was on the couch, their face hidden by their hands.
“I’d really love to know what you think about this part. Your thoughts keep me motivated to continue the story.”Part 3
The officer asked Caroline to stop the video before it played.
“Who is that?” I asked, pointing at the person on the couch.
Caroline’s eyes filled. “My friend Maya.”
I had met Maya once at a cookout. She left when Grant arrived.
The officer asked Caroline how she got the file. Grant had sent it from his phone while we were on our honeymoon, she said. He’d asked her to delete it from the shared camera account.

Instead, she’d downloaded a copy. She had come to the house tonight after seeing the camera alert, and she had spoken through the app while she waited outside for police.
I turned to the officer. “Is Maya safe?”
“I spoke to her tonight,” Caroline said. “She’s with a friend. She said I could give you her number, but she wants to speak to the officers herself.”
The officer stepped aside with Caroline to call her. From the hall, Grant said, “She’s lying about what happened.”
I hadn’t seen enough to know what had happened to Maya. Neither had the officer. When Caroline offered to play the file, the officer asked her to preserve it and explain how to access the original. A second officer took down the account details and the time Caroline had downloaded her copy.
I sat at the kitchen table with my gloves still on. Grant pointed to the part where I’d pinned him. Caroline showed the officers something that had happened before I knew him.
The officer came back and asked me to start at the front door. I told her exactly what Grant had said, where he’d stood, and when he’d swung the belt. I showed her the call log on my phone. I also told her each time I’d held him down. She wrote it all down, including the moments I’d let him go.
“Did he tell you why he installed the camera?” she asked.
“He said he wanted to check the house while we were away.”