It also grants explicit, preemptive permission for law enforcement to access a secure offshore cloud server in the event she arrived at this hospital incapacitated or unconscious.”

Daniel stood frozen, his chest heaving as the reality of his situation started to form a noose around his neck.

He looked at me, his eyes wide with a mixture of terror and disbelief. “You… you set me up. You engineered this.”

“No, Daniel,” I whispered, the words tasting like sweet vintage wine. “I didn’t set you up. I just prepared for exactly who you are.”

The cloud server, as Detective Hale would soon discover on his department tablet, contained the unedited, high-definition footage from the kitchen’s smoke-detector camera.

It captured the reality of that evening with horrifying clarity.