Chapter 15 - The House of Mothers
Patricia’s primary residence stood behind iron gates and old oaks. She had called it the house of mothers because three generations of Mercer women had raised children there.Madison had always thought the phrase sounded ceremonial.Now it sounded like a warning.The police entered with a warrant just before dawn. They found no Ethan, but the guest suite was prepared like a hospital room. Rowan lay in a bassinet beneath a warming lamp, breathing through a nasal tube.Madison reached for her daughter.“Slowly,” the nurse said. “Let us check her first.”Madison waited while the medical team examined Rowan. Her oxygen levels were stable. Her temperature was normal. There were two tiny punctures on her left foot.“What are those?” Madison asked.The nurse frowned. “We’ll draw blood.”Reyes found Patricia in the library, still wearing the clothes from the night before.“You told me Ethan had Rowan,” Madison said.“He did.”“Then how did she get here?”Patricia looked at the bassinet. “He brought her after the boat.”“Why would he leave her?”“He needed a place where you would look.”“You knew.”“I suspected.”Madison turned on her. “You keep using words that make crimes sound like weather.”Patricia accepted the accusation without defense.“Where is the original server?” Madison asked.Patricia glanced at the library shelves. “Behind Charles’s portrait.”The server was the size of a small suitcase. Its lights blinked green.“Ethan wanted it destroyed,” Patricia said.“Why didn’t you destroy it?”“Because I knew one day I would need to prove I wasn’t the worst person in this family.”“That is not the same as being innocent.”“No.”Madison carried the server to Reyes.“Can you read it?” she asked.“Our technician can.”“Not here.”The hospital nurse called from the guest suite. “Mrs. Mercer, you need to see this.”The blood test showed traces of the same sedative Patricia had given Madison. Rowan had received a fraction of it, enough to suppress her breathing without causing obvious injury.Madison closed her eyes.“He used it on her,” she said.Patricia whispered, “I didn’t know he had the bottle.”“You gave it to him.”“I gave it to Ethan for you.”“You gave him the weapon.”The nurse looked between them. “We need to return the baby to the hospital.”“Now,” Madison said.As officers prepared the transport, Patricia touched Madison’s sleeve.“There is another recording,” she said.“Where?”“In my bedroom.”Madison followed her upstairs. Patricia opened a drawer beneath the dressing table and removed a small recorder.“I began recording Ethan after Owen died,” she said. “He came to me the night of the accident. He was wet, although it had not rained.”Madison pressed play.Ethan’s voice filled the room.“The boat went too far out. Owen panicked.”Patricia answered, “You said he had left.”“He came back.”“Was he alive?”Silence.Then Ethan said, “You need to trust me.”The recording ended.Madison felt the old grief of Owen’s death rearrange itself into something monstrous.“Why didn’t you take this to the police?”“Ethan threatened Lila.”“And you kept funding him.”“I thought I could contain him.”“You fed him.”Patricia nodded.“Did Ethan know you were recording?”“He knows now.”The bedroom door slammed.Ethan stood in the hall.He held a syringe.“Put the recorder down,” he said.Reyes shouted from downstairs, but Ethan seized Patricia by the hair and pulled her against him.“You always wanted to be a witness,” he whispered.Madison stepped toward him. “Let her go.”“You brought the server?”“It’s downstairs.”“You’re lying.”“No. I brought it because I want this over.”He pressed the syringe against Patricia’s neck.Patricia closed her eyes.“You don’t want to kill her,” Madison said.“You don’t know what I want.”“You want the recording.”“I want my life back.”“Your life is gone.”His face twisted.“You took it,” he said.“You took mine first.”Behind him, a shadow moved. Lila stood in the doorway holding a fireplace poker.She swung.The poker struck Ethan’s wrist. The syringe fell. Patricia broke free.Ethan lunged at Madison.Reyes reached the room and tackled him into the wall.He screamed as officers cuffed him.“Where is the baby?” he shouted.Madison looked toward the stairs.The nurse was gone.So was Rowan.
