Chapter 7
Victor did not sleep for two days.
Neither did I.
Ethan was moved into a protected pediatric room with a police officer outside.
Victor hired private security, then fired every staff member Nathan Price had recommended.
Mrs. Alvarez, the housekeeper, cried when she was questioned.
“I knew something was wrong,” she said. “But Miss Serena threatened my son’s immigration case.”
Victor lowered his head.
“I’m sorry.”
Mrs. Alvarez looked at him.
“Be sorry by listening next time.”
He nodded.
He deserved that.
So did I, in a smaller way.
I had watched.
I had written notes.
But I had not called police.
Because I was a nanny.
Because Serena told me I was replaceable.
Because rich families had lawyers and I had student debt.
Detective Grace told me to stop punishing myself.
I was trying.
Then Nathan Price disappeared.
Police found his office empty.
Files shredded.
Computer wiped.
But he made one mistake.
He forgot the off-site archive Emily had paid for before she died.
Victor did not know about it.
I did.
Because Emily had left a key in the nanny manual.
I found the note folded between emergency contacts and feeding schedules.
If anything ever feels wrong, look behind the blue spine in the library.
That night, Victor and I returned to the mansion with police.
The nursery felt haunted.
The hallway still smelled like broken plaster and fear.
In the library, I found the blue book.
Behind it was a small brass key taped to the shelf.
Victor stared at it.
“Emily trusted the nanny more than she trusted me.”
“She trusted the person who would be closest to Ethan.”
We opened a locked cabinet beneath the window.
Inside were copies.
Bank statements.
Emails.
Medical records.
Photos of Serena entering the house while Emily was pregnant.
And one printed message from Nathan.
Once the child is born, everything depends on timing.
Victor read it and went still.
“Timing?”
Grace looked over the file.
“Emily’s medication schedule changed two weeks before delivery.”
Dr. Mercer confirmed it the next morning.
Someone had altered Emily’s prescriptions.
Not enough to look obvious.
Enough to weaken her.
Enough to make childbirth dangerous.
Victor broke a glass in his hand when he heard.
Blood ran down his palm.
He did not seem to feel it.
“I invited Serena into my house after she helped kill my wife.”
Grace said, “We still need proof of direct causation.”
Victor laughed once.
It was empty.
“What do you call this?”
“A start.”
Nathan was arrested in Miami three days later.
He had a passport, cash, and a flash drive hidden in his shoe.
On that drive was the file that changed everything.
A video call recording.
Serena, Nathan, and Caleb discussing Emily’s medication.
Serena’s voice was clear.
“She won’t die immediately. It just needs to look like complications.”
Victor walked out before the recording ended.
I found him in the hospital chapel.
He was sitting in the back row, hands folded so tightly his knuckles were white.
“I failed them both,” he said.
I sat beside him.
“You can still protect Ethan now.”
He looked at me.
“And you?”
“What about me?”
“You stood between my son and Serena when I didn’t.”
I swallowed.
“I love him.”
The words came out before I could stop them.
May you like
Victor’s eyes filled.
“So did Emily,” he whispered. “That’s why she found you.”
