Chapter 2 - The Locked Bedroom
Six hours earlier, Brooke had awakened to the sound of the nursery door closing.
She reached toward Travis’s side of the bed.
Empty.
He had left before sunrise for an emergency meeting downtown.
On the nightstand, he had left a note.
Call me if you need anything. I mean anything.
Brooke smiled when she saw it.
Then she tried to sit up.
Pain cut through her abdomen.
Her doctor had warned her not to lift, bend, or climb stairs without help. The delivery had been difficult. She had lost too much blood and required stitches.
But Jonah was crying.
“Lorraine?” Brooke called.
No answer.
Lorraine had insisted on staying with them after the birth.
“You need family,” she had told Travis.
“You cannot trust hired strangers with a newborn.”
Brooke had not wanted her there.
Lorraine had criticized everything since the wedding.
Brooke’s job.
Her family.
Her clothes.
Even the way she held a fork.
But Travis had believed the baby might soften his mother.
Instead, Lorraine had become worse.
When Brooke reached the nursery, she found Lorraine standing over the crib.
Jonah was crying, his tiny fists curled beside his cheeks.
“What happened?” Brooke asked.
Lorraine turned slowly.
“You took your time.”
“I was asleep.”
“A mother does not sleep through her child’s crying.”
Brooke ignored the insult and moved toward the crib.
Lorraine blocked her.
“Wash your hands.”
“I did.”
“Again.”
Brooke stared at her.
Then she noticed her phone on the changing table.
She had left it beside her bed.
“Why is my phone in here?”
Lorraine picked it up.
“You spend too much time on it.”
“Give it to me.”
Lorraine walked past her and placed it inside the hallway linen closet.
Then she turned the key.
Brooke’s stomach tightened.
“What are you doing?”
“Helping you focus.”
“That is not your decision.”
Lorraine stepped closer.
“You are in my son’s house because he has not yet realized what you are.”
Brooke tried to move around her.
Lorraine gripped Brooke’s wrist.
Not hard enough to bruise immediately.
Hard enough to control her.
“Let go.”
“Lower your voice. You’ll upset the baby.”
Then Lorraine smiled.
“You would not want Travis to think you are unstable.”
Brooke looked at the locked closet.
Then at the nursery camera.
Its small green light was dark.
May you like
Lorraine had unplugged it.
👉 Brooke believed the camera was disabled—but Lorraine had overlooked one detail about the backup system Travis installed before Jonah was born.
