Chapter 4 - The Prescription
The medication was not enough to explain Lily's injuries.
But it changed the investigation.
Detective Reed discovered that Patricia had obtained prescription medication through a physician who treated her for anxiety.
The drug was not prescribed for Lily.
Yet trace amounts had been found in the baby's system.
The hospital's toxicologist believed repeated exposure could cause excessive sleepiness and breathing problems in an infant.
Emily felt sick.
“So she was drugging my daughter?”
“We're still determining that.”
“But you think she was.”
“I think we have enough evidence to investigate it.”
Daniel sat beside Emily.
He looked destroyed.
“I should have protected you.”
Emily looked at him.
“You should have protected Lily.”
He nodded.
“I know.”
The next day, Patricia's attorney arrived.
He immediately demanded that Emily surrender temporary custody.
Emily nearly laughed.
“She's in intensive care because your client assaulted me.”
The attorney remained cold.
“Your emotional state is precisely what concerns us.”
Emily stared at him.
Then Detective Reed stepped forward.
“Her emotional state isn't relevant to your legal argument.”
The attorney turned.
“Detective?”
“We're investigating your client's conduct.”
He handed him a document.
The attorney's face changed.
“Is this a warrant?”
“Yes.”
“For what?”
“The Miller residence.”
They searched the house again.
This time they found the hidden storage room Patricia had kept behind a false panel.
Inside were photographs.
Dozens of them.
Emily's private moments.
Her sleeping.
Her crying.
Her breastfeeding.
Her arguments with Daniel.
Everything had been documented.
But one file stood out.
PROJECT LILY.
Emily opened it.
There were handwritten notes.
Mother emotionally unstable.
Father easily influenced.
Grandmother primary attachment figure.
Goal: emergency custody within six months.
Then Emily saw a photograph.
It was Lily's ultrasound.
Taken before she was born.
Beside it was a handwritten sentence.
The child must remain in the family.
Emily felt a chill.
“This started before Lily was born.”
Detective Reed nodded.
“Yes.”
Daniel stared at the file.
“Why didn't you tell me?”
Patricia's voice answered from behind them.
“Because you wouldn't have understood.”
She had been arrested after leaving the hospital.
Now she stood in handcuffs.
Daniel looked at her.
“Mom…”
Patricia looked directly at him.
“You've always been weak.”
His face crumpled.
“You hurt my daughter.”
“I protected her.”
“You hit Emily.”
“She was damaging you.”
“You drugged Lily.”
Patricia's expression finally cracked.
“I gave her something to sleep.”
“She was three weeks old!”
Patricia screamed:
“She needed stability!”
Emily stepped forward.
“You didn't want stability.”
Patricia looked at her.
“You wanted control.”
Silence.
Then Patricia smiled.
“You still don't understand.”
“What?”
“Lily isn't the reason.”
Emily frowned.
Patricia leaned toward her.
“Ask your husband who his biological father is.”
Daniel went completely still.
Patricia smiled.
“Ask him why your father-in-law left everything to a child who wasn't his.”
Then she was led away.
Emily turned to Daniel.
He looked terrified.
“Daniel?”
“I don't know.”
“Your mother clearly knows something.”
“I don't know what.”
But that night, another surprise arrived.
A DNA test was ordered.
The results came back within days.
Daniel was not the biological son of the man he had called father.
But that wasn't the biggest surprise.
The biological father was still alive.
May you like
And he was a man Emily knew.
Her own father.
