Chapter 2 - The Key
At County General, time became fluorescent lights, plastic chairs, and people saying "we're doing everything we can" without saying whether Margaret would live.
Daniel sat with Ethan pressed against his side. Olivia stood near the vending machines, arms folded tight.
A detective named Lena Ortiz arrived before the surgeon did.
"Mr. Mercer, I need to ask a few questions."
Olivia stepped forward. "My son is traumatized. He doesn't need police putting ideas in his head."
Ortiz looked at her. "I didn't ask your son anything yet."
Daniel watched Olivia's jaw tighten.
"Ethan told me what he saw," Daniel said.
"He saw an accident," Olivia snapped. "My mother-in-law was angry. She came at me. She slipped."
Ethan buried his face in Daniel's shirt.
Ortiz lowered her voice. "We'll speak with him using a child forensic interviewer. Not tonight."
The surgeon appeared at the end of the hall.
Margaret had a fractured hip, two broken ribs, and bleeding around the brain. She was alive, but unconscious.
Daniel swallowed hard. "Will she wake up?"
"We don't know yet."
Olivia covered her mouth and began to cry.
Hours later, after Ethan finally fell asleep against him, Daniel remembered the brass key.
He found Olivia alone by the elevators.
"What did you take out of your pocket?"
She blinked. "What?"
"At the house. A key."
"You're imagining things."
"Am I?"
Her eyes hardened. "Your mother has been poisoning you against me for months. Now our kid sees one bad moment and suddenly I'm a murderer?"
"She's not dead."
Olivia stared at him.
He stepped closer. "I didn't say she was going to die."
The elevator doors opened.
Olivia backed into them. "I need air."
Daniel grabbed her wrist before she could leave.
Something small dropped from her coat sleeve and hit the tile.
The brass key.
Ortiz, walking toward them, saw it too.
She bent down, picked it up with a tissue, and read the stamped number.
"Interesting," she said.
May you like
Olivia's face drained.
The key was stamped with the name of Margaret's bank.
