Chapter 3 - WHAT HAPPENED THAT NIGHT
Daniel locked the laundry room door.
“What am I starting to remember?”
Rosa looked toward the hallway.
“Keep your voice down.”
“No.”
“Mr. Whitmore—”
“Tell me what happened.”
Her hands shook.
“I can’t.”
“You can.”
“She’ll ruin me.”
Daniel’s patience snapped.
“My son is involved. You don’t get to tell me to calm down.”
Rosa closed her eyes.
“I was there that night.”
Daniel felt his chest tighten.
“At the hospital?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Rosa looked down.
“I was not working at your house yet.”
“You said you’d worked here seven months.”
“I lied.”
The room seemed smaller.
“Who hired you?”
“Mrs. Whitmore’s mother.”
“Evelyn?”
Rosa nodded.
Daniel had never trusted Evelyn Cross.
She had money, connections, and the kind of smile that made every threat sound polite.
“What did Evelyn hire you to do?”
Rosa’s lips trembled.
“She said Claire needed help.”
“With what?”
Silence.
“Rosa.”
“With the baby.”
Daniel stared.
“Before he was born?”
Rosa started crying again.
“I’m sorry.”
“Stop saying you’re sorry and tell me the truth.”
She wiped her cheeks.
“I was pregnant too.”
Daniel stopped breathing.
Rosa continued.
“Our due dates were almost the same.”
The blood drained from his face.
“No.”
“She found me through a private clinic. My boyfriend had left. I had no money. My mother was sick. Evelyn offered to pay my medical bills.”
“No.”
“I thought she was helping me.”
Daniel backed away.
“What happened to your baby?”
Rosa looked at him.
She didn’t answer.
She didn’t have to.
Daniel’s voice cracked.
“No.”
Rosa pressed both hands over her mouth.
“No,” Daniel repeated. “Ethan is Claire’s son.”
Rosa shook her head.
“I don’t know.”
“You just said—”
“I said I was pregnant. I said I was at the hospital. I did not say Ethan is mine.”
“But you think he is.”
Rosa collapsed into a chair.
“I woke up after delivery and they told me my baby had died.”
Daniel felt dizzy.
“They wouldn’t let me see him.”
“Why?”
“They said there were complications.”
The exact phrase used on Daniel.
Complications.
Rosa looked up.
“I begged. I screamed. Then Evelyn came into my room.”
“What did she say?”
“She told me grief could destroy people. She said she could give me work. A place to live. Money for my mother.”
Daniel’s stomach twisted.
“And she put you in this house.”
“Yes.”
“Near Ethan.”
“Yes.”
“Why would she do that?”
Rosa’s face changed.
“I think she wanted to control me.”
Daniel paced once, then turned.
“Did you ever touch Ethan before tonight?”
Rosa hesitated.
“That wasn’t the first time.”
His blood ran cold.
“What?”
“Sometimes at night, when the nanny was asleep… I heard him crying.”
“You went into his room?”
“Yes.”
“How many times?”
“I don’t know.”
“And he stopped crying for you?”
“Every time.”
Daniel stared at her.
Rosa whispered:
“He has a birthmark.”
Daniel’s mouth went dry.
“What birthmark?”
“Behind his right shoulder.”
Daniel knew it.
A small brown crescent.
Doctors had called it harmless.
Rosa began to shake.
“My son had the same mark.”
Daniel frowned.
“How could you know that if they never let you see him?”
Rosa’s eyes filled with horror.
“Because I saw him before they took him away.”
Daniel stepped closer.
“And?”
May you like
She whispered:
“He was alive.”
