Chapter 10 - THE LONGEST NIGHT -
Doctors rushed Elena into the maternity unit.
Dr. Ramirez ordered an emergency ultrasound.
I stood outside the examination room while nurses moved around me.
No one answered my questions.
No one promised that our son would be safe.
For twenty minutes, I heard only the muffled sound of medical equipment.
Then Dr. Ramirez stepped into the hallway.
“The baby’s heart rate dropped, but it has stabilized.”
“Is she in labor?”
“Not yet.”
“What caused the bleeding?”
“We’re still evaluating.”
I told her about the pills.
Her expression changed immediately.
“What were they called?”
“I don’t know.”
“She said Dr. Mercer gave them to her.”
Dr. Ramirez ordered a toxicology screening.
She also requested blood tests for medications not normally included in prenatal examinations.
Two hours later, she returned.
Elena’s blood contained traces of a drug used to lower blood pressure.
In high doses, it could cause dizziness, weakness, and complications during pregnancy.
Elena had spent months believing she was fragile.
My mother had used the pills to make her fragile.
“Could this harm the baby?” I asked.
“We will monitor him closely.”
“Can you prove Mercer prescribed them?”
“We need the bottle.”
Nathan contacted the district attorney.
The court hearing was only hours away.
We needed evidence from the manor before my mother could remove it.
Sophie offered to help.
Her father’s phone contained access codes for the estate’s security system.
Nathan refused to involve her.
Sophie looked at him coldly.
“My father entered that apartment because Vivian paid him.”
“That does not make this your responsibility.”
“It became my responsibility when he chose money over an innocent woman.”
At six in the morning, Sophie and a detective entered Blackwood Manor with a search warrant.
The nursery had been stripped.
The crib was gone.
The clothes were gone.
Every bottle and medication had disappeared.
However, Sophie found a hidden compartment beneath the changing table.
Inside was an empty blue bottle.
The prescription label carried Dr. Mercer’s name.
The patient’s name was not Elena Blackwood.
It was Arthur Blackwood.
The medication had originally been prescribed to my father three days before he died.
When Nathan showed me the photograph, I understood the meaning of the ledger.
The same physician who had supplied drugs to weaken Elena had treated my father before his sudden death.
At nine o’clock, I entered the courthouse alone.
Elena remained in the hospital under observation.
My mother sat at the opposite table.
She wore white.
She had always worn white when she wanted the world to believe she was innocent.
The judge entered.
Before the hearing began, a bailiff approached Nathan and handed him an envelope.
May you like
Inside was a single page written in Rosa’s handwriting.
I saw what Vivian put in Arthur’s tea.
