Chapter 4: The Confession with My Signature
An officer opened the folder while the paramedics checked Noah on the sofa.
“This says you planned to take the baby,” he told me.
“I have never seen that document.”
Vanessa leaned against Marcus.
“She wrote it after I told her we were letting her go.”
“You never dismissed me,” I said.
“I tried.
You threatened to make me regret it.”
“Ask her when that happened.”
“Last Tuesday.”
Daniel looked at his wife.
“Hannah was with Lily at the dentist last Tuesday.”
Marcus stepped forward.
“She came back before lunch.”
“No, she didn’t,” Lily said.
“We had ice cream.”
Vanessa glared at her daughter.
“Enough.”
The paramedic lifted Noah carefully.
“The baby should be examined at the hospital.”
“I’m going with him,” I said.
“You are not family,” Vanessa replied.
“He stays with me,” Daniel said.
“Lily comes too.”
One officer touched my elbow.
“Ms.
Hannah Reed, we need you to answer questions.”
My knees nearly folded.
“You believe that paper?”
“We have to examine everything.”
Vanessa moved close enough that only I could hear her.
“Tell them you were confused, and I may let you walk away.”
I looked directly into her eyes.
“You dropped your own baby.”
“And nobody will believe a nanny over this family.”
At the hospital, Daniel sat beside Noah’s bed while a doctor examined the child.
Lily remained pressed against my side until the officer asked me to step into the corridor.
“Your signature appears on three pages,” he said.
“Then someone copied it.”
“Your employee login was also used to disable the balcony camera.”
“That password was kept in Daniel’s office.”
Marcus came through the doors carrying a laptop.
“We found this in Hannah’s room.”
He placed it on a chair.
An email was open on the screen.
The message read: **Once Vanessa is blamed, Daniel will need me.**
My hand flew to my mouth.
“I didn’t write that.”
Marcus shrugged.
“It came from your account.”
Daniel stood in the doorway.
“Hannah, tell me the truth.”
“I have been telling you the truth.”
“Why is that message on your computer?”
“Because someone put it there!”
His silence hurt more than the mark on my face.
“You still don’t believe me,” I whispered.
“I don’t know what to believe.”
“You believed Vanessa before you even looked at your crying son.
You struck me while I was protecting him.”
Daniel lowered his eyes.
“I was wrong.”
“No.
Wrong is taking the wrong road.
You saw a powerless woman on the floor and decided she must be guilty.”
Lily rushed from the room and wrapped both arms around my waist.
“If Hannah goes, I go too,” she said.
Vanessa appeared behind her.
“Get away from that woman.”
Lily held tighter.
The officer reached for the laptop, but a gray-haired man in a chauffeur’s uniform blocked him.
“Before you take Ms.
Reed anywhere, you should see this.”
It was Arthur, the family driver.
Vanessa had barely spoken to him in three years.
Marcus frowned.
“This is a private family matter.”
Arthur removed a small dashboard memory card from his pocket.
“Not when you used my car.”
Vanessa’s lips parted.
Arthur handed the card to the officer.
“Mrs.
Vale and her brother sat in the back seat yesterday.
They forgot my camera records sound.”
“What did you hear?” I asked.
Arthur looked at Lily, then at Noah’s room.
May you like
“I heard Marcus ask whether one fall would be enough,” he said.
“And I heard Vanessa answer, ‘Not while Lily is still named in the trust.’”
