Chapter 7 - One Night of Trust
Daniel reached the nursery seconds after Emily.
He stopped when he saw his mother holding Noah.
“How did you get inside?”
Vivian bounced the crying baby gently.
“You left the back window unlocked.”
“No, we didn’t.”
“I climbed through.”
Emily stared at her.
“You climbed through a window to enter our nursery?”
“To prove a point.”
Daniel crossed the room and took Noah from her.
“What point?”
“That Emily is not protecting him.”
Emily stepped forward, but Daniel raised a hand, not to silence her but to hold the situation still.
“Give me your phone,” he told Vivian.
“Why?”
“Give it to me.”
Vivian’s expression chilled.
“I am your mother.”
“And he is my son.”
For the first time, Daniel’s voice carried no uncertainty.
Vivian removed her phone from her handbag and handed it over.
Daniel searched the installed applications. The baby-monitor application had been deleted, but hidden device settings showed recent connections to their home network.
“You accessed the monitor this afternoon.”
“To check whether Noah was sleeping.”
“You said you gave me the password and stopped using it.”
“I was worried.”
Daniel held up the photograph Emily had found.
“Did Lydia survive?”
Vivian’s face went blank.
“Where did you get that?”
“Answer me.”
“She did not survive.”
“Then why does this say Dad knew she did?”
“Because someone is trying to destroy this family.”
“Who?”
Vivian looked directly at Emily.
The accusation in her eyes was unmistakable.
Emily almost laughed from disbelief.
“You think I created a thirty-two-year-old photograph?”
“I think you are working with Claire.”
Daniel placed Noah in Emily’s arms.
“What happened to Lydia?”
Vivian turned toward the door.
Daniel blocked her.
“You don’t leave until you answer.”
A long silence followed.
Finally, Vivian sat in the rocking chair.
“Lydia was born with complications,” she said. “Your father’s first wife, Eleanor, could not cope. She disappeared shortly after the birth.”
“Where did she go?”
“I don’t know.”
“You were the night nurse,” Daniel said.
Vivian’s eyes shifted.
Claire had said the second voice in the recording belonged to a nurse named Ruth. But Vivian had now admitted that she herself had worked near Lydia.
“I was assisting the family,” Vivian said.
“Were you involved with Dad while Eleanor was still there?”
“That is irrelevant.”
“You became his wife six months after Lydia supposedly died.”
Vivian stood again.
“I will not be interrogated in my own son’s home.”
Daniel stepped aside.
“No. You won’t.”
He held out his hand.
“Leave the key.”
“I don’t have one.”
“Then leave your bag.”
Vivian clutched it.
Emily noticed the movement.
“Daniel.”
He reached for the handbag.
Vivian pulled back.
The bag struck the rocking chair and fell open.
A white pharmacy envelope slid onto the floor.
Vivian went pale.
Daniel picked it up.
The envelope came from Hillcrest Family Pharmacy.
It was empty.
The printed customer name had been torn away.
“You said nothing was dispensed,” Emily whispered.
Vivian recovered quickly.
“That belongs to me.”
“What medication?” Daniel asked.
“My blood pressure prescription.”
“Show us the label.”
“I threw it away.”
Daniel took a photograph of the envelope.
Vivian left without another word.
That night, Daniel slept on the nursery floor while Emily rested in the rocking chair with Noah close beside her.
Neither of them truly slept.
At two in the morning, Daniel’s radio sounded. A major collision had occurred on the highway. Every available paramedic was being called.
“I can refuse,” he said.
Emily looked at their son.
They needed Daniel’s income. His supervisor had already warned him about missed shifts following Noah’s birth.
“I’ll be fine.”
“I don’t want you alone.”
“I’ll call my sister.”
Daniel frowned.
“Claire?”
“She knows something. I would rather see her than your mother.”
Claire arrived at three.
She appeared exhausted and frightened. She handed Emily a folder containing copies of Lydia’s records.
“I’ll stay downstairs,” she said. “Lock the nursery from inside.”
For six hours, nothing happened.
Claire made coffee, checked the windows, and answered every question Emily asked.
By nine, Emily’s fear began to feel foolish.
Perhaps Claire really had been investigating Vivian.
Perhaps the altered recording had been planted to make everyone distrust one another.
Noah woke, fed normally, and smiled at the ceiling fan.
Claire stood in the nursery doorway.
“He looks like Daniel.”
“He looks like himself,” Emily replied.
Claire smiled sadly.
“I used to say that about Lydia.”
Emily studied her.
“You remember Lydia?”
“I was four.”
“Daniel said he was two.”
Claire’s smile disappeared.
“I meant I remember photographs.”
Before Emily could ask more, her phone rang.
Her neighbor, Mrs. Alvarez, had fallen in her garden. She needed help reaching the front door while her daughter drove over.
Emily looked at Claire.
“I’ll take Noah with me.”
“It’s raining, and she lives thirty seconds away.”
“I won’t leave him.”
Claire raised both hands.
“Then don’t.”
Emily wrapped Noah in a blanket.
At that moment, a loud crash came from the kitchen.
Claire ran downstairs.
A shelf had fallen from the wall, scattering glass across the floor.
“I’ll clean it,” Claire called. “Keep Noah away.”
Emily stood at the bottom of the stairs, holding her son.
Mrs. Alvarez called again, crying in pain.
Emily looked through the front window. Her neighbor lay visibly in the grass next door.
“I’ll be one minute,” she told Claire.
She placed Noah safely in his crib.
“Do not take him out.”
“I won’t.”
Emily ran next door.
She was gone for less than four minutes.
When she returned, Claire was cleaning broken glass in the kitchen.
“Noah stayed asleep,” Claire said.
Emily climbed upstairs.
May you like
Noah lay in his crib exactly as she had left him.
But there was a faint wet shine around his lips.
