Chapter 2
The police separated us immediately.
One officer remained inside with Emily and me while two others questioned Ryan and Diane on the porch.
Noah had finally stopped crying, but he seemed unusually sleepy.
I couldn’t stop thinking about how hard Diane had shaken him.
“I want him examined,” I told the officer.
An ambulance arrived within minutes.
Ryan tried to climb inside with us.
The officer blocked him.
“That’s my son,” Ryan protested.
“And his mother has requested space,” the officer replied.
At the hospital, doctors rushed Noah into an examination room.
I stood beside the bed, holding his tiny hand while a pediatric specialist checked his eyes, reflexes, and breathing.
Emily stayed close enough to catch me if my knees gave out.
After the longest hour of my life, the doctor finally spoke.
“We don’t see signs of a serious injury, but we’re keeping him overnight for observation.”
Relief hit me so hard that I burst into tears.
Then a hospital social worker entered.
Her name was Marissa Cole.
She carried a folder.
“Mrs. Carter, your husband has made allegations about your mental health.”
“Of course he has.”
Marissa sat across from me.
“He provided recordings of you screaming, breaking a glass, and saying you couldn’t handle being a mother.”
My stomach dropped.
Three weeks earlier, after four nights without sleep, I had dropped a bottle in the kitchen.
It shattered.
Noah was crying upstairs.
I had shouted, “I can’t handle this alone!”
Ryan had promised to help me.
Instead, he had secretly recorded me.
“He edited it,” I said. “I said I couldn’t handle it alone because he kept disappearing.”
Marissa’s expression remained professional.
“We’ll review everything. Until then, neither parent should remove Noah from the hospital without authorization.”
“So I’m being investigated too?”
“It’s standard procedure when both parents make allegations.”
Emily slammed her palm against the wall.
“They created this entire situation!”
Marissa lowered her voice.
“Then you need evidence that shows a pattern.”
I thought about the nursery camera.
But when Emily opened the security app, the screen went black.
All recorded files were gone.
“No,” she whispered.
I grabbed the phone.
The folder containing the footage was empty.
Ryan still knew the password.
He had deleted it remotely.
The police had watched the video, but I didn’t know whether they had downloaded it.
Then my phone rang.
It was Ryan.
“You should have apologized,” he said when I answered.
“You deleted the footage.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“If Noah is hurt—”
“My attorney is filing for emergency custody tonight. The court will see a tired woman attacking her mother-in-law while holding a newborn.”
“You planned to make me look dangerous.”
“I planned to protect my son.”
His voice was strangely calm.
Too calm.
Then Diane took the phone.
“You have until morning to sign a temporary custody agreement,” she said. “Do that, and we won’t show the judge everything.”
“What everything?”
She laughed softly.
“Ask your sister what happened seven years ago.”
The call ended.
I turned toward Emily.
She stood near the window, pale and silent.
“What is she talking about?”
Emily wouldn’t meet my eyes.
“Claire, there’s something I never told you.”
“What?”
Her hands began to shake.
“Seven years ago, I knew Diane.”
I stared at her.
“That’s impossible. I hadn’t even met Ryan.”
“You hadn’t,” she said. “But I had.”
Before she could explain, Marissa returned with two hospital security guards.
Ryan followed her.
May you like
He was holding a court order.
And it said I was not allowed to be alone with my own baby.
