Chapter 3 - The Bottles in the Locked Cabinet
Dr. Reed closed the study door.
Lorenzo didn't ask him to sit.
"What?"
The doctor placed the report on the desk.
"A sedating compound. Low concentration. Not enough to cause an obvious emergency."
My stomach twisted.
"But enough to make a baby too sleepy to feed?" I asked.
Dr. Reed looked at me.
"Repeated exposure could."
Lorenzo went frighteningly still.
"How long?"
"I can't determine that from one sample."
"Could this explain the weight loss?"
"It could explain part of it."
Part.
That word mattered.
Because someone hadn't necessarily been trying to kill Leo quickly.
They had been making him fade.
Slowly enough to resemble illness.
Lorenzo immediately ordered independent testing of every medication in the nursery.
Margaret was questioned again.
This time she broke.
Not completely.
Just enough.
"I never hurt him."
Lorenzo stood across from her in the library.
"Then tell me who did."
"I can't."
"Can't or won't?"
Her eyes filled with tears.
"You don't understand."
I watched from the doorway.
She looked at me.
That same strange fear returned.
"She shouldn't be here."
"Why?" I asked.
Margaret shook her head.
"Because this started before she came."
"What started?"
She looked toward Lorenzo.
"Ask what happened to Sofia."
The room changed.
Lorenzo's face hardened.
"My wife died from complications."
Margaret gave a tiny, broken laugh.
"That's what they told you."
"Who is they?"
She lowered her voice.
"Find the cabinet."
"What cabinet?"
Margaret's eyes moved toward me.
"The one behind the nursery wall."
Before she could explain, a crash came from upstairs.
We ran.
The nursery had been searched.
A framed painting had been ripped from the wall.
Behind it was a narrow panel.
Lorenzo opened it.
Inside was a locked medical cabinet.
He forced it open.
Rows of bottles filled the shelves.
Some were labeled.
Some weren't.
At the bottom sat a black notebook.
Lorenzo opened it.
Dates.
Amounts.
Initials.
L.R.
S.R.
E.D.
And another set.
E.M.
My initials.
Elena Morales.
"No."
I grabbed the book.
My name appeared beside a date from four months earlier.
Before I had ever worked at the estate.
Before Lily died.
"That's impossible."
Lorenzo turned pages.
My name appeared again.
And again.
Someone had been recording information about me while I was still pregnant.
I felt suddenly exposed.
Observed.
Chosen.
"This isn't about Eric's debt," I whispered.
Lorenzo looked at me.
"No."
"Then why me?"
He turned one final page.
A hospital name was written there.
St. Catherine Medical Center.
The hospital where Lily had been delivered.
Underneath was a patient number.
Mine.
We drove there that afternoon.
Lorenzo wanted security.
I refused an entourage.
We compromised on one driver waiting outside.
At medical records, I requested Lily's file.
The clerk searched.
Then searched again.
"I'm sorry."
"What?"
"There's no infant file under that name."
I stared at her.
"There has to be."
She checked my record.
"You were admitted."
"Yes."
"There's documentation of an emergency delivery."
"Then where is my daughter's record?"
The clerk frowned.
"It should be linked."
"But?"
"It isn't."
I felt Lorenzo beside me.
"Can records be deleted?" he asked.
"Not normally."
"What does normally mean?"
The clerk lowered her voice.
"It would require administrative access."
She checked another screen.
Then stopped.
"What?"
She looked uncomfortable.
"Someone accessed Ms. Morales's record yesterday."
"Who?"
"I can't give you—"
"Please," I said.
She saw my face.
Maybe she saw the mother rather than the policy violation.
She wrote a name on paper.
Dr. Samuel Reed.
Leo's doctor.
Lorenzo stared at it.
Neither of us spoke until we reached the elevator.
"Why would Reed access my hospital file?"
"He wouldn't."
"Unless he knew me."
"Or knew Lily."
The elevator doors opened.
A man stood inside.
Eric.
My ex.
I froze.
He looked thinner.
Terrified.
"Elena."
Lorenzo moved between us.
Eric raised both hands.
"I'm not here to hurt her."
"You already did," Lorenzo said.
Eric flinched.
I stepped around Lorenzo.
"Why were you at his house?"
Eric looked at me.
"I was trying to warn you."
"By meeting Margaret?"
"She's my aunt."
Everything stopped.
"What?"
"My mother's sister."
I had dated Eric for four years.
He had never mentioned her.
"You lied to me."
"About a lot of things."
"Did you hurt Leo?"
"No."
"Did you put something in his bottles?"
"No."
"Then why are your initials in that notebook?"
Eric's eyes filled with panic.
"What notebook?"
Lorenzo showed him a photograph.
Eric's face drained of color.
"We need to leave."
"Answer me."
"Elena, please."
He looked around the corridor.
"They know you're here."
"Who?"
Eric stepped closer.
"The people who paid me."
My throat tightened.
"Paid you for what?"
He couldn't look at me.
Lorenzo's voice became low.
"What did they pay you to do?"
Eric whispered:
"Make sure Elena lost the baby."
I couldn't breathe.
"You pushed me."
Eric shook his head desperately.
"That wasn't supposed to happen."
"You pushed me down stairs."
"I was supposed to scare you into leaving town."
"Why?"
"Because of Lily."
I stared at him.
"What about Lily?"
Eric began crying.
"I didn't know until afterward."
"Know what?"
His answer never came.
A nurse at the far end of the corridor shouted.
Eric looked past us.
His face changed.
"Run."
The fire alarm started screaming.
People poured into the hallway.
Eric grabbed my wrist.
Lorenzo shoved him away.
Then the lights went out.
May you like
In the darkness, Eric whispered directly into my ear:
"Elena, Lily wasn't stillborn."
