It was not hidden.

I had seen it myself, sitting on a bookshelf, during a dozen drop-offs, and thought nothing of it.

What none of us had thought about was that it recorded continuously — audio and video both — and that it had therefore been recording, for months, every argument, every punishment, every cold word said to my daughter in that living room.

“After the ambulance came the first time,” Maya said, “I heard Patricia tell Dad she was going to delete the clip.

Because it made them look terrible.”

I texted Silvia immediately, and her reply came back within the minute, and it was firm and absolute. Do NOT attempt to access their cloud account.