Chapter 4 - The Perfect Scapegoat
Elena felt all the blood rapidly drain from her face as she stared at the glowing monitor.
Tomorrow was Julian's seventh birthday, the exact day he was meant to inherit the massive fortune.
The Hawthornes were planning to murder the little boy before the clock struck midnight to steal everything.
Elena frantically scrolled through the rest of the digital files, desperately searching for more evidence.
She found a drafted press release meant to be sent to all the local Connecticut news stations.
The sensational headline claimed a tragic, unavoidable medical accident had occurred at the Hawthorne estate.
The article detailed how a negligent, desperate, and untrained young nanny had accidentally given the boy a lethal overdose of his medication.
Her own name, Elena Reyes, was typed in bold letters as the sole suspect in the tragic death.
They had deliberately hired her specifically because of her family's crushing debts and vulnerable background.
She was the perfect, desperate scapegoat who the police and the public would instantly blame.
Elena quickly took out her cell phone and snapped clear photos of every single document on the screen.
She knew she had to grab Julian and run away from this nightmare tonight, no matter the cost.
She silently crept back upstairs, navigating the dark hallways carefully to avoid the motion sensors.
She reached the nursery, quietly unlocked the door, and slipped inside to wake the boy.
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But when she pulled back the expensive silk blankets, her heart completely stopped.
Julian was missing from his bed.
