Chapter 2 - The Message That Wasn’t Hers
Lenora’s answer was a laugh so quiet it frightened me more than her shouting had.
“You hit me,” she said. “Now you’re trying to invent a story because you know the police will believe a respectable older woman before they believe you.”
Daniel held Owen against his shoulder. The baby had stopped screaming, but his breaths still came in quick, shuddering pulls. I kept one hand over my split lip and tasted blood each time I swallowed.
“You had Elise’s phone in your coat,” I said. “You were standing over her baby inside a washing machine.”
“I found the phone on the counter.”
“It was charging beside the diapers.”
“Then perhaps someone put it there to frame me.”
Daniel unlocked the screen with Elise’s passcode. Lenora watched him too closely. She knew the code, I realized. Maybe she knew it because she had read it over Elise’s shoulder. Maybe she had been waiting for a chance to use it.
The message thread was nearly empty. Texts had been deleted, but the newest message remained at the top. It had been sent six minutes earlier to a contact saved only as a single black square.
I got him alone. The next part starts tonight.
Daniel opened the contact. There was no number, only a cloud-based address and a profile photo that had been removed. He scrolled through the phone’s recent activity. A call had been made from Elise’s number at 4:12 that afternoon, while Elise was still recovering in the maternity ward.
“She couldn’t have sent this,” I said.
“Why not?” Lenora asked.
“Because she was asleep after surgery.”
Lenora’s expression barely changed, but her fingers tightened around her coat sleeve.
Daniel called the hospital. A nurse confirmed that Elise had been sedated at 3:50 and had not touched her phone. The call from her number had lasted thirty-eight seconds.
Before he could say anything else, sirens sounded outside.
Two officers entered with a paramedic. Lenora immediately pointed at me. She spoke calmly, describing the vase, the blood, and my supposed attack. She never mentioned Owen inside the washer until the paramedic asked why the baby was crying.
“I was trying to calm him,” she said. “Mara came in hysterical and hit me before I could explain.”
The paramedic examined Owen first. His tiny fingers curled into Daniel’s shirt. When the man checked his pupils, Owen whimpered and turned his face away.
“How long was he in the drum?” the paramedic asked.
“I don’t know,” Daniel said. “I just came home.”
The paramedic crouched beside the open washer. “Was it running?”
“No,” Lenora answered.
He reached behind the machine and frowned. “It’s unplugged.”
Daniel stared at the cord. The washer had been disconnected from the wall. A wet towel lay beneath it, and a faint chemical smell clung to the rubber seal around the door.
The paramedic’s face hardened. “This baby needs to go to the hospital.”
Lenora stepped forward. “There’s no reason for that.”
“There is if he may have been exposed to detergent or medication.”
“I didn’t give him anything.”
The words escaped too quickly.
The officers separated us. I answered questions from a chair in the dining room while Daniel followed the paramedic outside with Owen. Lenora sat across from me holding gauze against her head, her eyes never leaving my face.
“You should have let me take him,” she murmured.
“You put him in a washing machine.”
“I put him where I could prove a point.”
“What point?”
She leaned closer. “Your sister has been lying to my son since the day they married.”
An officer interrupted before I could answer. He asked Lenora where she had found the phone. She repeated that it had been on the counter. When he asked why it was inside her coat, she said she had picked it up because she feared I would destroy evidence.
Daniel returned an hour later without Owen. The hospital had admitted him for observation. His face looked gray.
“They found something in his blood,” he said.
My stomach tightened. “What?”
“A small amount of diphenhydramine.”
Lenora’s eyes flicked toward the door.
“They said it could make a newborn dangerously sleepy,” Daniel continued. “They’re testing the dosage.”
He looked down at Elise’s phone. A new notification appeared on the screen, though no one had touched it.
May you like
The black-square contact had sent another message.
Ask Daniel what happened to Rebecca.
