Chapter 3
PART 3:
The baby developed a fever on a Thursday night.
It was low at first.
Sophia called the pediatric nurse line.
The nurse told her to monitor it and bring him in if it climbed.
By midnight, the baby was hotter.
His little cries sounded weak.
Sophia reached for her phone to call Lucas.
Eleanor took it out of her hand.
“Do not bother him over every little thing.”
Sophia stared at her.
“He has a fever.”
“He is a baby. Babies cry.”
Audrey was sitting on the couch scrolling through her phone.
“God, Sophia. You act like you’re the first woman to have a child.”
Sophia stood up with the baby in her arms.
“I’m taking him to the hospital.”
Eleanor blocked the hallway.
“You are not waking up the whole base because you can’t handle motherhood.”
Sophia tried to move around her.
Eleanor grabbed her wrist.
Hard.
The baby cried louder.
Sophia gasped.
“Let go.”
Eleanor’s eyes changed.
Not angry.
Satisfied.
Like she had been waiting for Sophia to push back.
“This is why Lucas needed someone stronger,” Eleanor whispered. “You fall apart over everything.”
Sophia pulled free.
Her phone slipped from Eleanor’s hand and cracked against the floor.
Audrey laughed.
“Great. Now she’s breaking things too.”
Sophia didn’t care.
She grabbed the diaper bag.
But Eleanor snatched the car keys from the hook.
May you like
Sophia stood there barefoot, shaking, holding her sick child while two women treated her panic like entertainment.
👉 And when Sophia remembered the spare key in the garage, Eleanor showed how far she would go to stop her.
