Chapter 3 - The Missing Glass
Police searched my parents’ house before sunset.
The glass was nowhere to be found.
Neither was the pitcher my mother claimed she had used.
Mom insisted she had washed everything because she was “nervous.”
Detective Hale did not believe her.
Neither did Daniel.
Rachel was taken to the police station for questioning.
My father hired an attorney before she even arrived.
By eight that evening, the story my family told police had already changed three times.
First, Rachel claimed I charged toward her.
Then she said she lifted her foot to protect herself.
Then she insisted she slipped.
Ethan’s video destroyed every version.
The footage showed me standing nearly six feet away.
Rachel moved toward me.
She looked directly at my stomach.
And she kicked.
There was nothing accidental about it.
Daniel watched the video once.
Only once.
After that, he could not look at it again.
I was admitted overnight.
My daughter’s heartbeat remained steady.
Every twenty minutes, I touched my stomach.
At 9:17 p.m., she finally moved.
It was faint.
Barely more than a flutter.
But it was there.
I burst into tears.
Daniel almost shouted for the nurse.
“She moved!”
The nurse smiled.
“That’s encouraging.”
For the first time all day, I believed my daughter might survive.
Then Ethan arrived.
His mother, my aunt Susan, brought him.
Ethan looked terrified.
He held his phone against his chest.
“I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“I should’ve helped you.”
“You did help me.”
“I just recorded.”
“You protected the truth.”
He looked toward Daniel.
Then he lowered his voice.
“There’s more.”
Aunt Susan frowned.
“What do you mean?”
Ethan unlocked his phone.
“When Uncle Robert tried to grab my phone, I ran inside.”
He opened another video.
“I forgot I was still recording.”
The footage shook violently as Ethan moved through the house.
We heard shouting.
My father’s voice.
My mother crying.
Rachel screaming that she was going to prison.
Then the camera became still.
Ethan had apparently hidden behind the pantry door.
My mother’s voice became clear.
“Robert, this wasn’t supposed to happen in front of everyone.”
My body went cold.
Dad answered.
“Then Rachel should have controlled herself.”
“She panicked.”
“And now we have a bigger problem.”
“What?”
“The baby still has a heartbeat.”
Nobody in my hospital room moved.
Daniel stopped breathing.
Ethan looked sick.
Then my father said something worse.
“We have until delivery.”
The recording continued.
My mother whispered.
“What about Claire?”
My father answered calmly.
“Claire doesn’t matter once the trust transfers.”
Daniel grabbed the edge of the bed.
Detective Hale, who had returned only minutes earlier, immediately asked Ethan to send him the original file.
But Ethan wasn’t finished.
“There’s another part.”
The video continued.
Footsteps.
A cabinet opening.
Then my mother spoke.
“I’m not doing the tea again.”
My father replied.
“You won’t have to.”
The recording ended.
Aunt Susan covered her mouth.
I stared at the screen.
Hale looked at Ethan.
“Did you tell anyone you had this?”
“No.”
“Good.”
He turned to Aunt Susan.
“Do not take him back to that house.”
Then he looked at Daniel and me.
“I’m assigning an officer outside this room.”
Daniel frowned.
“You think they could try something here?”
Hale’s answer came immediately.
“I think someone already tried once.”
Before he could say more, a nurse appeared in the doorway.
“There’s a woman at the desk asking to see Claire.”
“Who?”
The nurse checked the visitor slip.
“Margaret Mercer.”
My grandmother’s former private secretary.
I had not seen Margaret in almost seven years.
May you like
The nurse looked confused.
“She says she has something Eleanor Mercer told her to give you only if someone tried to hurt your first child.”
