Chapter 3 - The Red Notebook
The doctor refused to promise me everything was fine.
I respected her for that.
I hated every second of it.
“We’re going to examine them, monitor them, and investigate possible exposure,” she said.
“For now, let us work.”
Possible exposure.
Two clean words for the bottle on my hallway floor.
A detective named Elena Ruiz met us outside the treatment room.
She wore a navy jacket and carried a small notebook.
She spoke to Lena first.
Not because I mattered less.
Because Lena knew more.
“The proof you mentioned,” Ruiz said.
“What is it?”
“A red notebook.
Behind the loose backing in my dresser.”
“What’s in it?”
“Dates.
Times.
Things I heard.
How the boys acted afterward.”
“And why hide it?”
Lena twisted a tissue between her fingers.
“Margaret searched my room.”
Ruiz waited.
“She said the silver was disappearing.
Then she told me she could make sure nobody ever hired me again.”
My jaw tightened.
“Did you take anything?”
Lena looked at me.
The hurt in her face answered before she did.
“No.”
“I’m sorry.”
She looked down.
Ruiz asked permission to have officers retrieve the notebook.
I gave it immediately.
Then she turned to me.
“Who had authority over household hiring?”
“Margaret handled the first interviews.”
“Scheduling?”
“Margaret.”
“Staff complaints?”
I stared at the blank hospital wall.
“Margaret.”
Every answer was the same.
A nurse opened the door.
Both boys were awake.
Nico sat on Lena’s lap as soon as she entered.
Noah reached for me, then hesitated.
I held still.
He finally took one finger.
That small touch nearly brought me to my knees.
My wife, Caroline, had died seven months earlier.
Afterward, I had told myself the boys needed a well-run home while I kept the business alive.
Margaret had offered to handle everything.
I had let her.
Ruiz’s phone rang.
She listened, asked one question, and moved a few steps away.
When she came back, her expression had hardened.
“The dresser is there,” she told Lena.
“The backing was removed.”
Lena’s mouth opened.
“The notebook?”
“Gone.”
For the first time since the ambulance, Lena began to shake.
Then my phone lit up.
May you like
A message from an unknown number.
Ask your nanny what she’s been stealing.
