Chapter 6 - THE BLUE BOTTLE
Ethan ran upstairs.
Officer Mills followed him.
They entered Lily’s bathroom.
“Where does she keep the medicine, sweetheart?”
Lily stood beside Ethan, holding his hand.
She pointed beneath the sink.
“There.”
Mills opened the cabinet.
Children’s vitamins.
Bandages.
Cold medicine.
Then, pushed far in the back, a small blue prescription bottle.
The label had been removed.
Mills put on gloves.
Ethan stared at it.
“What is that?”
“We’ll have it tested.”
Lily looked up.
“It makes me sleepy.”
Ethan crouched.
“How often did Vivian give it to you?”
“When you were gone.”
His eyes burned.
“Every time?”
Lily shrugged the helpless shrug of a four-year-old.
“Sometimes.”
Ethan kissed her forehead.
“You’re not in trouble.”
She looked scared.
“Vivian says medicine makes me good.”
Behind them, Rosa gasped.
Ethan’s hands clenched.
Mills placed the bottle into an evidence bag.
“We need the child evaluated at the hospital.”
Ethan nodded.
“Now.”
Downstairs, Vivian saw them leaving.
“Where are you taking her?”
Ethan ignored her.
Vivian stepped closer.
“That bottle is allergy medication.”
Officer Ramirez stopped her.
“Then you can explain where it came from.”
“I already told you.”
“You haven’t told us anything.”
At the hospital, Lily underwent tests.
Ethan sat beside her bed for hours.
She colored a picture of a yellow house.
No dark rooms.
No chains.
No Vivian.
Just Ethan and Lily holding hands under a huge blue sky.
He stared at the picture until his vision blurred.
“Daddy?”
“Yeah?”
“You’re not mad at me?”
His heart cracked.
“Why would I be mad at you?”
“Because I was bad.”
Ethan moved closer.
“Who told you that?”
She looked down.
“Vivian.”
He lifted her chin carefully.
“Listen to me. You are not bad. You didn’t cause this. Grown-ups are supposed to make kids feel safe.”
Lily whispered, “You didn’t know.”
He swallowed.
“No. I didn’t.”
“Why?”
That question hurt more than anything Vivian had said.
Because Ethan didn’t have a good answer.
He had been busy.
Distracted.
Trusting.
He had confused providing money with being present.
“I should have paid closer attention,” he said softly.
Lily touched his face.
“You came home.”
He almost broke right there.
The doctor entered.
Dr. Kaplan.
Her expression was serious.
“We found traces of a sedating antihistamine in Lily’s system.”
Ethan’s jaw tightened.
“Is she okay?”
“Yes. The amount currently in her system isn’t dangerous.”
“Currently?”
Dr. Kaplan hesitated.
“We’ll need more testing to understand how frequently she may have been given it.”
Ethan looked away.
The doctor continued gently.
“We’re required to report suspected inappropriate administration of medication to a child.”
“Good.”
A detective arrived an hour later.
Detective Marissa Chen.
She had already reviewed some of the security footage.
“I’m going to be direct,” she told Ethan. “This may become a criminal case.”
“I want it to.”
“It already is.”
Ethan looked through the glass wall toward Lily.
“What happens now?”
“We preserve every recording. We test the medication. We interview staff. We investigate financial activity if it connects.”
Ethan frowned.
“Financial activity?”
Chen pulled out a folder.
“Your attorney contacted us about possible fraud.”
Ethan nodded.
She placed a printed photograph on the table.
A man leaving Ethan’s house.
Ethan recognized him.
Vivian’s brother, Mason.
“Security footage caught him entering your home office three times while you were out of town.”
“When?”
“Over the last four months.”
Ethan stared at the image.
Chen slid another photo forward.
This one showed Vivian handing Mason a folder.
“What was in that folder?” Ethan asked.
“We don’t know yet.”
His phone rang.
Michael.
Ethan answered.
“Tell me you found something.”
Michael’s voice was grim.
“I found a lot.”
“How bad?”
“Ethan, Vivian didn’t just move money.”
May you like
A pause.
“She changed your will.”
