Chapter 3 - WHAT WAS IN THE COCOA
For one second, the entire yard seemed to tilt.
I crouched in front of Grace. “What does he mean, making you sick?”
She looked at my mother.
Diane took one step forward. “Do not fill her head with nonsense.”
Grace pressed the braid to her chest. “At Grandma’s house, she gives me cocoa before bed. I get dizzy. Sometimes I can’t remember things in the morning.”
Every medical instinct in me sharpened.
“How many times?”
“I don’t know. Five? Six?”
“Did you tell me?”
“I tried. Grandma said you were tired and I shouldn’t make your life harder.”
Diane’s voice rose. “It was an over-the-counter sleep aid. The child has anxiety.”
“You gave medication to my daughter without permission?”
“She needed rest.”
“You are not her doctor.”
Raymond moved closer. “Rachel, lower your voice.”
I stood. “Open the gate.”
He did not.
I opened the SCHOOL folder.
The first video showed Grace asleep on a couch in my mother’s den. Sabrina stood over her holding Grace’s school tablet while Martin Vale photographed the screen.
The next clip showed Diane speaking into a phone.
“Yes,” she said, “Rachel leaves her alone for long hospital shifts. Grace often arrives confused. We are worried about neglect.”
A second voice answered through the speaker. I recognized it as Elaine Mercer, the counselor at Grace’s private school.
“We can document concerns,” Elaine said. “But the reports need consistency.”
Sabrina leaned toward the phone. “You’ll get consistency.”
I stopped the video.
My hands were cold.
They had not only planned one scene. They had been building a case for months.
A false case.
A profitable case.
Connor tugged my sleeve. “There’s Wi-Fi in the greenhouse. Grandpa never changed that router.”
Sabrina heard him.
“Connor!”
He ran.
She chased him across the grass.
I shoved the tablet into my scrub pocket, took Grace’s hand, and sprinted after them.
Guests scattered as we cut between tables. Connor reached the greenhouse first and pulled the door open. Sabrina caught the back of his shirt.
He screamed.
Grace turned and kicked Sabrina’s shin.
Sabrina released him with a curse.
The three of us stumbled inside. I slammed the glass door and turned the latch just as Sabrina struck the other side with both palms.
“You cannot keep my son from me!” she shouted.
Connor backed into a row of tomato plants.
“I don’t want to go with her,” he said.
Outside, Raymond and Diane were crossing the lawn.
I pulled out my phone.
One bar appeared.
Then two.
I dialed 911.
The dispatcher answered.
“My name is Dr. Rachel Morgan,” I said. “I am being held behind a locked gate with two children. One child has been assaulted. The adults responsible are attempting to destroy video evidence.”
Sabrina grabbed a garden chair and swung it into the greenhouse door.
Glass cracked.
The dispatcher asked for the address.
I gave it.
“Please hurry.”
The second strike shattered the top panel.
Sabrina reached through the broken opening for the latch.
Connor stared at the bloodless fury on his mother’s face.
Then he pulled a tiny silver key from his pocket.
“She’s not after the tablet,” he said.
May you like
He pointed toward the old potting cabinet behind me.
“She’s after what I locked inside there.”
