Chapter 3 - MY PASSWORD
Nathan put the access log on the kitchen island.
“I didn't delete it.”
“Your computer knows my password.”
“So does your office laptop.”
Vanessa folded her arms.
“Interesting how quickly your brother has an excuse.”
I looked at Nathan.
“Where were you at ten twenty this morning?”
“At work.”
“Prove it.”
His expression hardened, but he pulled out his phone.
He showed me three video meetings between nine and eleven. His face appeared in the participant logs.
It wasn't absolute proof.
But it mattered.
Sophie whimpered.
My anger immediately became practical.
I called her regular pediatric clinic—not Martin's private number—and told the nurse Sophie had been struck and had fallen from a stool.
They told me to bring her in.
Vanessa reached for her purse.
“I'm coming.”
“No.”
“I'm her stepmother.”
“And I just watched you hit her.”
Her mouth tightened.
Nathan drove because my hands were shaking too badly.
At the clinic, Sophie was examined by Dr. Elaine Brooks, another pediatrician in the practice.
The slap had left redness but no serious facial injury. The fall had caused a small bruise on her hip. Elaine asked careful questions while a nurse documented everything.
Then Elaine opened Sophie's chart.
Her eyebrows drew together.
“Daniel, did you authorize a new sleep medication?”
“No.”
She turned the monitor slightly.
Three weeks earlier, Martin Hale had entered a prescription under Sophie's record.
I stared at the dosage.
“What is that?”
“A sedating antihistamine. It can be prescribed in certain circumstances, but I don't see a clinical note supporting this.”
“Was it filled?”
Elaine checked.
“Yes.”
Twice.
My throat tightened.
Sophie had been unusually sleepy several evenings that month.
Vanessa told me she was teething.
I called our pharmacy from the examination room.
The pharmacist confirmed the medication had been collected.
“Who picked it up?”
A pause.
“Your authorization allows pickup by listed household members.”
“Which one?”
“I can provide that through the appropriate record request.”
Nathan leaned against the wall, pale.
Elaine touched my arm.
“Daniel, I'm making a mandated report based on what you've told me and what I documented.”
I nodded.
This was no longer about an argument between spouses.
It was about protecting Sophie.
Before we left, Elaine printed the medication entry for me.
At the bottom was Martin Hale's electronic authorization.
Under it was an emergency-contact update submitted the same day.
My name had been removed as Sophie's primary contact for the clinic portal.
Someone else had replaced me.
Vanessa Carter.
And beneath her name was a second authorized contact.
Nathan Carter.
My brother stared at the paper.
“I never signed that.”
I wanted to believe him.
Then his phone buzzed.
He looked at the screen and went completely still.
“Who is it?”
Nathan turned the phone toward me.
The message came from an unknown number.
STOP HELPING DANIEL OR WE SEND HIM THE GARAGE VIDEO.
Nathan's hand began to shake.
There was something my brother hadn't told me.
May you like
And whoever sent that message knew it.
📖 Nathan finally admitted there really was a garage video, but what it showed would force me to question the night Vanessa first entered Sophie's life. 👇
