Chapter 6: The Lie She Saved for Last
“What happened the night Lily was born?” Matthew asked.
Natalie’s attorney touched her arm.
“Say nothing else.”
“No,” Natalie said.
“Claire should explain why doctors found sedatives in her system after delivery.”
Matthew looked at me.
“Claire?”
“I had an emergency surgery.
The hospital administered them.”
Natalie tilted her head.
“That is not how Mom remembers it.”
Every face turned toward Helen.
Mom rose slowly.
“Natalie told me Claire had taken something on her own.
I believed her.”
“You never asked me?” I said.
“You were exhausted, and Natalie said questioning you would make things worse.”
Matthew stepped toward Mom.
“For seven years, you believed Claire endangered Lily on the day she was born?”
Mom’s mouth shook.
“I told myself it had been handled.”
Natalie folded her arms.
“There is a pattern.
Claire simply hides it well.”
Dr.
Patel approached with a sealed evidence bag.
Inside it was the amber bottle from the video.
“This was found beneath the passenger seat of Ms.
Bennett’s car,” he said.
“Security located it after the investigator requested that the vehicle remain on hospital property.”
Natalie spun toward her attorney.
“They searched my car?”
A woman beside Dr.
Patel displayed her identification.
“Detective Mara Ellis.
Your attorney can discuss the warrant with you.”
Natalie pointed at me.
“She put that there.”
Detective Ellis held up the bag.
“The pharmacy label bears Chloe Price’s name.”
Daniel stared at Natalie.
“That medicine was prescribed after Chloe’s rash.”
“I lost the bottle.”
“No,” Chloe said from behind him.
“You told me it was empty.”
Natalie’s attorney whispered in her ear.
“What exactly do you want?” Natalie asked the detective.
“Your phone and permission to interview Chloe with her father and a child advocate present.”
“No.”
“Then we will proceed through the court.”
Natalie turned to Mom.
“Tell them Claire has always been jealous of me.”
Mom took one step backward.
“I spent Claire’s whole childhood asking her to keep the peace because correcting you was harder.”
“Mother—”
“No.
You learned that if you created enough trouble, we would make Claire pay for it.”
Natalie’s face hardened.
“After everything I did for you?”
“You did nothing without attaching a price.”
Mom crossed the waiting room and took my hands.
“I taught you that your pain mattered less than her temper,” she said.
“I cannot undo that, but I will not do it to Lily or Chloe again.”
My knees weakened, and Matthew pulled a chair behind me.
Mom knelt in front of me while I cried against her shoulder.
“I needed you to believe me,” I said.
“I know.”
“I needed it years ago.”
“I know that too.”
Natalie snatched Chloe’s tablet from the chair and ran toward the stairwell.
“Stop her!” Daniel shouted.
Detective Ellis followed, but the fire door slammed between them.
Chloe grabbed my hand.
“My watch,” she said.
“It’s connected to the tablet.”
Matthew opened the location app on Chloe’s watch.
A blue dot moved out of the hospital garage and onto the main road.
Then my phone rang.
Natalie’s voice came through before I could speak.
“If anyone follows me, Claire, I’ll erase everything and disappear with Chloe’s passport.”
Chloe looked at Daniel.
May you like
“My passport isn’t at Mom’s house,” she whispered.
“It’s in her car.”
