Chapter 1 - The Nod
Ethan reached for the phone.
“Give me that.”
I pulled it tightly against my chest.
“Don’t come near me.”
Margaret stepped forward, her fake tears instantly vanishing.
“What is on that phone, Emily?”
I stared at the woman who had just tried to institutionalize me to steal my child.
“A doorbell camera,” I whispered.
Margaret went completely still.
“The neighbor across the street,” I continued. “The camera points directly at your house. Right through the glass panels beside your front door.”
Ethan’s face turned the color of ash.
“Emily, you’re confused,” he stammered. “Let me see it.”
He took another step toward the bed.
I pressed the red emergency call button beside my pillow.
And I didn’t let go.
“Help!” I screamed. “Get him away from me!”
Two nurses burst into the room.
Ethan backed away, raising his hands.
“It’s fine, everything is fine. My wife is just distressed.”
“I want the police,” I told the nurses. “Right now. My husband and his mother tried to kill me.”
Margaret tried to laugh.
It sounded like breaking glass.
“She hit her head,” Margaret told the nurses. “She doesn’t know what she’s saying.”
“I have it on video,” I said.
The room went dead silent.
I looked directly into my husband’s terrified eyes.
“I saw you at the top of the stairs, Ethan.”
His breath hitched.
“I saw you look at her. I saw you nod. I saw you give her permission to push me.”
One of the nurses immediately stepped between me and Ethan.
The other picked up the room phone and called hospital security.
Margaret turned toward the door.
“I’m calling my lawyer,” she snapped.
“You’re going to need a criminal defense attorney,” I replied. “Not a family lawyer.”
Margaret grabbed Ethan’s arm and dragged him into the hallway.
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They didn’t look like a mother and son anymore.
They looked like two criminals realizing the trap they built had just snapped shut on their own necks.
