Chapter 3 - The Photos from My Bedroom
Police obtained a warrant for Amber’s house.
My goal was to find the black phone before she destroyed it.
She was gone.
Her SUV was found abandoned six blocks away.
The kitchen drawer contained the phone exactly where Lily said.
The passcode worked.
0416.
The first folder was titled S.
Inside were photographs of my house.
My bedroom.
My medicine cabinet.
My wallet.
My driver’s license.
My signature on school forms.
Some had been taken while I was home.
One showed me asleep on the couch.
Timestamp: 2:14 a.m.
Six weeks earlier.
Amber had been standing six feet away.
She had a key.
Then came a document:
PETITION FOR EMERGENCY GUARDIANSHIP OF MINOR CHILD.
Petitioner: Amber Carter.
Child: Caleb Carter.
Mother: Sarah Carter.
Allegation: untreated substance abuse and unsafe medication practices.
The filing date was blank.
My signature was forged.
Amber planned to take my son legally after making me look like the person who drugged him.
The supporting evidence was already staged.
Prescription bottles arranged on my nightstand.
A photograph of me asleep when I had the flu.
A cropped image of Caleb crying in the kitchen.
Then we found an audio note Amber recorded for herself.
“Need Sarah angry in public. Park works. Lily must react naturally. Caleb must recover.”
Caleb must recover.
She had calculated a dose she believed would frighten everyone without killing him.
Another note said:
Nathan says clonidine looks better than clonazepam because Sarah’s fake prescription becomes the visible mistake.
Nathan.
Dr. Nathan Vale.
Police searched his license.
Active.
No disciplinary record.
His clinic was empty.
Then the detective found a photograph of Amber standing beside Nathan in a parking garage.
Between them was my mother, Helen Carter.
Mom had told me she had not seen Amber in three months.
The picture was taken last Tuesday.
All three were smiling.
I thought Amber had recruited an old family doctor—but the photograph proved my mother was involved too.
Then police opened a scanned letter from my father written one week before he died.
Sarah must never learn why Caleb was born.
Dad died seven years ago.
Caleb was seven.
The dates overlapped.
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I thought the plot began with Amber’s jealousy—but Dad’s letter proved the secret started before my son was born.
The hospital birth record showed Amber had signed paperwork the night Caleb was delivered.
