Chapter 6 - LILY AND THE PHONE
Lily found Ryan’s phone before the shove.
Not after.
That mattered.
She was carrying empty gift bags upstairs to the guest room when she noticed a smartphone leaning horizontally against a ceramic vase on the hallway console.
Camera pointed toward the top staircase landing.
Screen on.
Recording.
She recognized Ryan’s case.
Black with a cracked corner.
She did not pick it up immediately.
Why would she?
People record parties.
Then she heard Ryan’s voice around the corner.
“Just admit you’ve been pushing him away.”
Natalie:
“I’m not having this conversation with you.”
Lily stopped.
Ryan:
“Everybody sees it.”
Natalie:
“Move.”
Lily looked at the phone again.
Still recording.
She became uncomfortable.
Then someone called her downstairs.
She left.
At the bottom of the hall, she heard my father coming up.
He passed her.
“Everything okay?”
She pointed vaguely.
“Ryan’s talking to Natalie.”
My father said:
“Let them clear the air.”
There.
Not conspiracy yet.
Permission.
Lily returned downstairs.
Thirty seconds later, we heard the fall.
After my punch, she remembered the phone.
Went upstairs.
It still sat against the vase.
Still recording.
She picked it up.
Unlocked because the camera had remained active.
She brought it down.
That was what I saw in the final seconds.
Later she told police everything.
Her age mattered.
Seventeen.
Still a minor.
The investigators interviewed her with her mother present.
My father was furious.
Not at Ryan.
At Lily.
“You should have brought the phone to me.”
She answered:
May you like
“Why?”
He had no good answer.
