Someone was lying next to Emily.
I stared at the camera in shock. It was an adult—and then I recognized her.
My mother-in-law. 😨
Suddenly, everything made sense.
Months earlier, we had argued because I wanted Emily to sleep in her own room. My mother-in-law called me a bad mother and insisted that a child shouldn’t sleep alone.
Now I realized what she had been doing.
Every night, after everyone went to sleep, she would quietly enter Emily’s room and lie beside her until morning.
She thought she was protecting her granddaughter, but instead she was frightening her and making her feel trapped in her own bed.
The next morning, we had a serious conversation.
I kept the camera—and made it clear that how I raise my daughter is my decision.