Chapter 1 - The Dining Room Camera
I stared directly into my mother-in-law’s panicked eyes.
The silence in the small hospital interrogation room was completely suffocating.
I slowly reached into my coat pocket and pulled out my cell phone.
My fingers trembled as I opened the smart home security application.
Patricia immediately lunged forward across the small table.
"Give me that phone right now, Rachel!" she screamed.
Officer Carter stepped between us, easily pushing Patricia back into her plastic chair.
I pressed the screen, rewinding the footage to earlier that afternoon.
The video quality was in high definition, capturing the entire dining room perfectly.
The officers leaned over my shoulder to watch the small screen.
There was Patricia, sitting right next to Lily at the mahogany table.
She was holding a shiny, silver desk toy shaped like a geometric cube.
"Look, sweetie, these are magic silver candies from the fairies," Patricia’s recorded voice echoed through the hospital room.
I watched in pure horror as she snapped off the tiny magnetic spheres one by one.
She placed them directly into my innocent daughter's mouth.
Lily swallowed them with a glass of apple juice, completely trusting her grandmother.
The two police officers immediately unclipped their handcuffs.
Patricia’s face turned the color of pale ash.
"You have the right to remain silent," Officer Bennett said as he locked the steel cuffs around her wrists.
Daniel stood completely frozen in the corner of the room.
His mother looked desperately at him while the police dragged her toward the door.
May you like
"Tell them the truth, Daniel!" Patricia shrieked hysterically.
"If you let them lock me up, I swear I will drag you down with me!"
