After my maternity leave, finding affordable daycare felt impossible. That\u2019s when my mother-in-law, Kelly, swooped in with her well-timed offer.<\/p>\n
*\u201dWhy waste money? I\u2019ll watch her for free!\u201d*I hesitated. Kelly and I had never been particularly close, and she had a habit of overstepping. But my husband, Jake, convinced me. *\u201dShe raised me just fine, Lauren. It\u2019ll be good for them to bond.\u201d*<\/p>\n
The first week seemed perfect\u2014pictures of stroller walks, home-cooked dinners, texts reassuring me that my daughter, Lily, was doing great.<\/p>\n
Then, one night, I came home to find Kelly looking nervous.<\/p>\n
*\u201dOh, Lauren, honey\u2026 I had a little accident today.\u201d*<\/p>\n
She handed me the nanny cam. The screen? **Shattered.**<\/p>\n
*\u201dIt just fell while I was cleaning! So sorry!\u201d* she added quickly, avoiding eye contact.<\/p>\n
Something felt\u2026off.<\/p>\n
What she didn\u2019t know? **The camera was broken, but the audio still worked.**<\/p>\n
That night, after putting Lily to sleep, I plugged in the memory card and listened.<\/p>\n
At first, everything seemed normal\u2014Kelly humming lullabies, Lily\u2019s soft coos.<\/p>\n
Then\u2014<\/p>\n
**The front door opened.**<\/p>\n
A deep male voice. **Not my husband\u2019s.**<\/p>\n
*\u201dYou sure she won\u2019t find out?\u201d* the man asked.<\/p>\n
My stomach dropped. **Who the hell was Kelly bringing into my house?**<\/p>\n
I pressed play with shaking fingers.<\/p>\n
*\u201dRelax,\u201d* Kelly\u2019s voice said, laughing lightly. *\u201dShe\u2019s too busy at work. And even if she did find out, she\u2019d never suspect the truth.\u201d*<\/p>\n
Truth? What truth?<\/p>\n
Then, a sound. Footsteps. **Coming from Lily\u2019s room.**<\/p>\n
I bolted upright, my pulse pounding in my ears.<\/p>\n
*\u201dYou know, I was thinking\u2026\u201d* Kelly\u2019s voice turned sickeningly sweet. *\u201dIt\u2019d be so much easier if she were out of the picture.\u201d*<\/p>\n
I clamped a hand over my mouth.<\/p>\n
*\u201dShe won\u2019t listen to me. But if she\u2026left, permanently, Jake would have no choice but to let me help raise Lily. And you\u2014well, you\u2019d get what you want too.\u201d*<\/p>\n
The man chuckled. *\u201dYou\u2019re crazy, lady. But I like the way you think.\u201d*<\/p>\n
I nearly dropped my phone.<\/p>\n
I had been worried about Kelly\u2019s overbearing ways.<\/p>\n
**I never expected to uncover a murder plot.**<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
After my maternity leave, finding affordable daycare felt impossible. That\u2019s when my mother-in-law, Kelly, swooped in with her well-timed offer. *\u201dWhy waste money? I\u2019ll watch her for… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1788,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1787","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedailyglow.fun\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1787","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedailyglow.fun\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedailyglow.fun\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedailyglow.fun\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedailyglow.fun\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1787"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thedailyglow.fun\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1787\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1789,"href":"https:\/\/thedailyglow.fun\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1787\/revisions\/1789"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedailyglow.fun\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1788"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedailyglow.fun\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedailyglow.fun\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedailyglow.fun\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}