Chapter 1 - Check the Camera
Noah screamed before I reached the top of the stairs.
Not fussing. Not hungry. Screaming.
I ran into the nursery and stopped so hard my shoulder hit the doorframe.
Vanessa Whitmore stood beside the crib with a hot iron in her hand.
“Shut up!” she snapped at the baby.
The iron was still plugged in. Steam curled from its metal face.
“Mrs. Whitmore, put it down.”
She turned. “Get out, Rachel.”
Then she moved the iron toward the crib.
I caught her wrist.
“Put it down.”
She slapped me so hard my ears rang.
“You’re fired!”
“I don’t care.”
I grabbed Noah and pulled him against my chest. He buried his wet face in my shoulder.
Then the front door opened downstairs.
“Vanessa?”
Alexander Whitmore was home a day early.
His footsteps hit the stairs fast.
Vanessa dropped the iron.
By the time Alexander burst into the nursery, she was crying.
“She did it!” Vanessa pointed at me. “I caught Rachel hurting Noah.”
Alexander went white.
“Rachel?”
I was shaking, but I didn’t argue.
I pointed above the nursery door.
“Check the camera.”
Vanessa stopped crying.
Alexander opened the security app.
He rewound twenty minutes.
The video showed Vanessa entering with the iron already hot. Then her phone rang on speaker.
A man said, “Do it before he gets home. The nanny takes the blame.”
Vanessa leaned over Noah’s crib.
“Once the baby is out of the way, everything belongs to me.”
Alexander’s face changed.
He knew the man’s voice.
So did I.
It belonged to his attorney, Nolan Pierce.
Alexander stared at his wife.
“Why is my lawyer telling you to get rid of my son?”
May you like
Vanessa looked at the camera, then at the open nursery door.
And instead of answering, she ran.
