Chapter 6 - Open Your Hand
Lorraine kept her fist closed.
Travis stood between her and the doorway.
Brooke remained on the floor behind him.
“Open your hand,” he repeated.
Lorraine adjusted Jonah against her shoulder.
“You’re frightening the baby.”
“No. You are.”
“You have no idea what happened.”
“I saw enough.”
“Brooke lost control.”
Brooke’s breath caught.
Lorraine continued quickly.
“She tried to take Jonah while she was drugged. I stopped her.”
Travis looked over his shoulder.
“Brooke?”
“My pills are gone,” she whispered.
Lorraine’s eyes hardened.
“She took them.”
“I didn’t.”
“You don’t remember.”
Travis turned back toward his mother.
“Open your hand.”
Lorraine’s voice sharpened.
“I will not be interrogated in my son’s home.”
“My home,” Travis said. “My wife. My child.”
The words landed heavily.
Lorraine looked stunned.
Then offended.
As if Travis had violated an old agreement.
She had always expected to come first.
Even after his marriage.
Even after his son’s birth.
Brooke pushed herself upright against the side of the crib.
Travis extended one hand toward Jonah.
“Give me my son.”
Lorraine hesitated.
It was brief.
But unforgivable.
Then she stepped forward and transferred Jonah carefully into Travis’s arms.
The moment the baby was safe against his chest, Travis’s expression changed.
He no longer had to restrain himself for fear of startling Jonah in Lorraine’s hold.
He looked at her closed hand.
Lorraine opened it.
A tiny clear capsule rested in her palm.
No label.
A thin metal pin ran through one end.
Brooke stared at it.
“What is that?”
Lorraine closed her fingers again.
“Nothing.”
Travis’s voice became flat.
“People don’t hide nothing beneath a newborn’s blanket.”
Lorraine glanced toward the unplugged nursery camera.
Travis followed her gaze.
Then he looked at the small black backup lens inside the smoke detector.
Lorraine saw it too.
Her face lost color.
“You recorded me?”
Travis held Jonah closer.
May you like
“No,” he said. “You recorded yourself.”
👉 The hidden object was frightening, but what the backup footage revealed Lorraine doing before Brooke entered the room was far more calculated.
