CHAPTER 4 — EMILY REMEMBERS
CHAPTER 4 — EMILY REMEMBERS
Emily didn't wake until the following afternoon.
The ICU was almost silent except for the steady rhythm of heart monitors and the soft hiss of oxygen flowing through a nasal tube.
Her eyelids fluttered.
"Ethan..."
Her voice was barely audible.
I rushed to her bedside.
"I'm here."
Tears slid from the corners of her eyes.
"I thought..."
"...you weren't coming back."
I took her fragile hand.
"I came home."
"I'm so sorry."
She looked confused.
"Why are you apologizing?"
"Because I left you with them."
Emily closed her eyes.
For a long moment she couldn't speak.
When she finally did...
Every word shattered me.
"It wasn't your fault."
"I trusted them too."
Detective Jensen waited until Emily's doctors confirmed she was stable enough for a brief interview.
The detective pulled up a chair.
"You don't have to answer anything you're uncomfortable discussing."
Emily nodded weakly.
"I want to."
"What happened after your husband left?"
Emily stared at the ceiling.
"At first... everything seemed normal."
"Linda made breakfast."
"Ashley held Noah."
"I thought they really wanted to help."
Her fingers trembled.
"Then things changed."
"The second morning I woke up hungry."
"I asked if there was any oatmeal."
Linda smiled.
Then she said—
"You'll never lose the baby weight if you keep eating every few hours."
Emily laughed nervously.
She thought it was a joke.
It wasn't.
"They gave me half a slice of toast."
"Nothing else until dinner."
"What about water?" the detective asked.
Emily swallowed painfully.
"They said too much water would make me bloated."
I stared at her in disbelief.
"They limited your water?"
She nodded.
"I started hiding cups in the bathroom."
"What about Noah?"
Emily's face crumpled.
"I kept telling them he was hungry."
"But my milk stopped coming."
"Because I wasn't eating."
She covered her face with shaking hands.
"I begged them to let me use the formula."
"What did they say?" the detective asked.
Emily began crying.
"Linda locked it in the pantry."
"She said formula makes babies weak."
"She told me if Noah cried long enough..."
"...he'd learn discipline."
The detective stopped writing.
Even she looked horrified.
Emily continued.
"Whenever I tried getting out of bed..."
"Ashley took Noah away."
"She said I was too emotional to be trusted."
"They kept telling me I was imagining things."
"They said all new mothers go crazy."
I recognized the tactic immediately.
They hadn't just neglected her.
They had tried to convince her she was losing her mind.
"There was one night..."
Emily whispered.
"I heard Noah crying."
"I couldn't stand up."
"I crawled across the floor."
She began sobbing uncontrollably.
"I found him..."
"He was lying in the same diaper."
"Soaked."
"His little lips were dry."
"I tried making a bottle."
"But the pantry was locked."
"So I... I mixed warm water with the last few drops of formula left in another bottle."
She buried her face against my shoulder.
"I'm sorry."
"I couldn't feed him."
I held her as tightly as I dared.
"You kept him alive."
"That's what you did."
Just then, a nurse entered the room.
She was smiling.
It was the first genuine smile I'd seen in days.
"I have good news."
We both looked up.
"Your son just opened his eyes."
"And..."
She smiled even wider.
"He finished his first full bottle."
For the first time since my nightmare began...
Hope returned.
But across town...
May you like
Two arrest warrants had just been signed.
And my mother and sister were about to learn that the lies they had carefully built over four days were about to collapse in a single night.
