Chapter 8 — The First Wife
Chapter 8 — The First Wife
Her name was Natalie Shaw.
Ryan had married her when he was twenty-four.
The marriage lasted eleven months.
Emma found the record within minutes.
“What happened to her?” she asked.
Ryan sat in Samuel’s office, staring at his hands.
“She left.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
“She said my mother was destroying her life.”
Emma almost laughed at the cruel familiarity of it.
“And you didn’t believe her.”
“I thought she was trying to separate me from my family.”
“Did Claire tell you that too?”
“Claire wasn’t there yet.”
Victoria had been enough.
Ryan explained that Natalie had suffered a miscarriage late in the first trimester. Afterward, Victoria accused her of being careless. She told relatives Natalie had continued exercising against medical advice.
“She hadn’t,” Ryan said. “But Mom kept repeating it until everyone believed her.”
Emma’s stomach tightened.
“What did you do?”
“I asked Natalie whether she had followed the doctor’s instructions.”
Emma stared at him.
“You questioned her while she was grieving?”
Ryan’s eyes filled with shame.
“She packed that night.”
“Did she destroy a nursery?”
“No.”
“Did she threaten your mother?”
“No.”
“Did she cheat?”
“No.”
“She simply left because you chose Victoria.”
Ryan said nothing.
Samuel located Natalie in Oregon.
She agreed to speak through a secure video call.
At forty, Natalie looked composed, but the moment she saw Ryan, her face hardened.
“I wondered how long it would take before your mother did this again.”
Emma leaned closer.
“What exactly did she do?”
Natalie looked at her pregnant belly.
“She tampered with my prenatal medication.”
Ryan shot upright.
“What?”
Natalie’s eyes remained on Emma.
“I was prescribed progesterone. One morning, I noticed the tablets looked different. The pharmacy confirmed they weren’t mine.”
“Why didn’t you go to the police?” Emma asked.
“I did. Your mother claimed I was unstable after the miscarriage. Ryan told them she would never hurt a child.”
Ryan covered his mouth.
Natalie continued.
“There wasn’t enough evidence. The case disappeared.”
Emma felt cold despite the warm office.
“Do you think the medication caused the miscarriage?”
“The doctors couldn’t prove it.”
Ryan’s voice broke.
“Natalie, I didn’t know.”
“You didn’t want to know.”
She looked at Emma again.
“Check everything she gives you. Food. Vitamins. Tea. Everything.”
Emma remembered the cup of herbal tea Victoria had brought her the week before.
She had drunk half of it.
At the time, it had tasted unusually bitter.
Samuel immediately contacted her doctor.
Blood tests were ordered.
The results arrived the following afternoon.
A sedative had been found in Emma’s system.
Not enough to harm the baby.
Enough to cause dizziness, confusion, and a fall.
Emma stared at the report.
Then she remembered the top of the staircase.
Two nights before the lockout, Victoria had insisted she carry a box upstairs.
Emma had become lightheaded halfway up.
Ryan had caught her before she fell.
It had not been an accident.
Samuel called the police.
But when officers arrived at the mansion, Victoria was gone.
So was her passport.
May you like
On Emma’s pillow lay a handwritten note.
You took my son. Now I will take what matters to you.
