Chapter 3 - The Story He Prepared Before I Fell
Nora locked the hospital door before Detective Mercer could enter.
He knocked again.
“Mrs. Carter?”
“I only want to ask you a few questions.”
Nora lowered her voice.
“You do not have to speak to him right now.”
I stared at the door.
“Is he working with Daniel?”
“I don’t know.”
“That’s not the same as no.”
Nora gave me a grim look.
“No, it isn’t.”
I asked her to let Mercer in alone.
I wanted to see his face when I told him what happened.
Nora opened the door just wide enough to check the hall.
Mercer entered without Daniel.
He was in his late fifties, broad shouldered, with tired eyes and snow melting on his coat.
He looked at my cast, my bruises, and the fetal monitor.
Then he opened a small notebook.
“Your husband says you were having a difficult day.”
That was his first sentence.
Not how are you.
Not are you safe.
Not what happened.
I understood immediately what Daniel had done.
He had given Mercer a story before I could give him the truth.
“What else did my husband say?”
Mercer shifted his weight.
“He said you two argued about the baby.”
“What about the baby?”
“He said you had expressed doubts about becoming a mother.”
I laughed once because the lie was so disgusting that my body did not know what else to do.
“I have a nursery painted yellow with eighty-seven tiny stars on the ceiling.”
Mercer did not smile.
“He showed me messages from you.”
“What messages?”
Mercer took out his phone.
He read from a screenshot.
“I can’t do this anymore.”
“I feel trapped.”
“Sometimes I think everyone would be better without me.”
I stared at him.
“I never sent those.”
“He says you did.”
“Check my phone.”
“Your husband says you took it when you left the vehicle.”
“My phone was in the SUV.”
Mercer made a note.
“Can you prove that?”
The question made anger rise through the pain in my ribs.
“Can he prove I took it?”
Mercer’s jaw tightened.
Nora stepped between us slightly.
“She told me at the rescue site that her phone was in the vehicle.”
Mercer looked at her.
“I need to hear from Mrs. Carter.”
“You are hearing from her.”
I raised my hand.
“I want to continue.”
Mercer turned back to me.
I told him Daniel pushed me.
I told him Daniel made a phone call after I fell.
I told him a woman asked if the baby was gone too.
Mercer wrote everything down.
When I finished, he sighed.
“Mrs. Carter, your husband has injuries.”
“Self-inflicted.”
“He says you clawed his face while he tried to stop you from leaving the car.”
“I didn’t touch his face.”
“He also says you have been seeing a therapist.”
“I saw a counselor twice after my father died three years ago.”
Mercer looked down at his notebook.
“Daniel had answers ready for everything.”
“Yes.”
That was the first useful thing Mercer said.
I leaned toward him.
“Because this wasn’t sudden.”
“He planned it.”
Mercer’s expression changed slightly.
I told him the exact timeline.
I told him Daniel reported me missing at eleven thirty-two.
I told him we did not reach the overlook until eleven forty-four.
Mercer stopped writing.
“Where did you get eleven thirty-two?”
“Nora.”
He looked at her.
Nora folded her arms.
“That is the time stamped on the ranger bulletin.”
Mercer’s face became unreadable.
“That bulletin may have been entered later.”
“But the report was still made earlier,” Nora said.
Mercer closed his notebook.
“I’ll verify it.”
I did not trust the promise.
“Where is Daniel now?”
“Downstairs.”
“Does he know which room I’m in?”
“No.”
“Does he know I’m alive?”
Mercer hesitated.
“Yes.”
Nora swore under her breath.
My heart monitor began beeping faster.
Mercer raised both hands.
“He is your husband.”
“He had a legal right to know you were located.”
“He tried to kill me.”
“That allegation is being investigated.”
“Then investigate it before you give him my location.”
Mercer’s face tightened.
“I did not give him your room number.”
A nurse hurried in and adjusted the monitor.
She told me to breathe slowly.
While she worked, Mercer stepped into the hall.
Nora followed him.
I could hear their voices outside.
They were arguing.
Then my bedside television changed to a local news segment.
A red banner appeared across the bottom.
MISSING PREGNANT WOMAN FOUND ALIVE AFTER MOUNTAIN SEARCH.
A reporter stood outside my house.
Behind her, Daniel walked toward a group of cameras.
His cheek showed three bright red scratches.
His eyes were wet.
His voice trembled beautifully.
“My wife has been under enormous pressure,” he said.
“I love her more than anything.”
I felt sick.
He continued.
“I just want her to come home and get the help she needs.”
A reporter asked whether I had fallen.
Daniel lowered his head.
“We had an argument.”
“She ran from the vehicle.”
“I searched everywhere.”
“I blame myself for not stopping her.”
He paused at exactly the right moment.
Then he covered his face.
The reporters moved closer.
I stared at him.
That was when I saw the woman standing behind him near our front door.
She wore a cream coat and had one hand over her mouth as if she were grieving.
My sister Grace stood beside her.
I knew the woman in the cream coat.
Vanessa Cole was Daniel’s business partner.
She had organized my baby shower.
She had spent Thanksgiving at our table.
She had once told me Daniel was lucky to have me.
The reporter turned toward her.
“Ms. Cole, as a close family friend, what can you tell us about Emily’s condition recently?”
Vanessa lowered her eyes.
“She has not been herself.”
My skin went cold.
Then Vanessa said the line that finally made me recognize the voice from Daniel’s phone on the mountain.
“We were all worried about the baby.”
The same rhythm.
The same soft ending on the word baby.
I knew then that Vanessa was the woman who had asked whether my child was dead.
But what happened next was worse.
Grace reached for Vanessa’s hand.
May you like
Vanessa squeezed it.
And my sister looked at her like they had been keeping secrets together for a very long time.
