PART 4

Then the surgeon said:

“But there is something you need to understand.”

I opened my eyes.

“What?”

“The mass was producing a very high amount of hCG.”

“So she was pregnant?”

“No.”

He shook his head.

“It was a rare type of ovarian tumor.”

My stomach dropped.

“Cancer?”

“We don’t know yet.”

“What caused it?”

“That isn’t something we can determine from the surgery alone.”

He paused.

“But there’s something unusual.”

“What?”

“The tumor was highly active despite its size.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means something may have been stimulating it.”

I stared at him.

“Something?”

“A hormone. A medication. Another biological factor.”

My mind immediately went to the pink bottle.

“Could medicine cause it?”

The surgeon looked at me.

“Certain substances can affect hormone pathways.”

My hands began trembling.

“So somebody could have caused this?”

“We can’t say that yet.”

“But you’re thinking it.”

“I’m saying it needs to be investigated.”

Detective Harris stepped forward.

“We’re investigating.”

The surgeon nodded.

“Then you need to know something else.”

He lowered his voice.

“We found evidence that the tumor had been bleeding internally for some time.”

My breath caught.

“How long?”

“Possibly weeks.”

Weeks.

The headaches.

The vomiting.

The exhaustion.

The bruises.

The school nurse calling me twice.

All of it suddenly looked different.

This wasn’t something that had happened today.

Something had been happening to my daughter for weeks.

Maybe months.

And someone had known.

Sophie woke just after midnight.

Her eyes opened slowly.

“Mom?”

I was beside her immediately.

“I’m here.”

She smiled weakly.

“Did they find the baby?”

My heart broke.

“No baby, sweetheart.”

“Good.”

I blinked.

“Good?”

She nodded.

“I didn’t want one.”

I kissed her forehead.

“That’s okay.”

She looked around.

“Where’s Daniel?”

“Right outside.”

“Can he come in?”

I looked toward the nurse.

She nodded.

Daniel entered.

Sophie smiled.

“Hi.”

“Hey, bug.”

He sat beside her.

“You scared us.”

“Sorry.”

“You don’t apologize for being sick.”

She looked at him.

Then her expression changed.

“Daniel?”

“Yeah?”

“Can I tell you something?”

I watched her carefully.

She lowered her voice.

“Dad told me you were dangerous.”

Daniel went completely still.

“He said you wanted to take me away from him.”

I felt my stomach twist.

“When did he tell you that?”

“Last month.”

Daniel looked at me.

I said nothing.

Sophie continued.

“He said you and Mom were trying to make me hate him.”

Daniel swallowed.

“What else?”

“He said if anybody asked about the medicine, I should say Mom gave it to me.”

My blood ran cold.

“What?”

Sophie looked frightened.

“I didn’t want to lie.”

“You didn’t.”

“He said if I told the truth, they’d take me away.”

I leaned over her.

“Who would take you away?”

“The police.”

“Why would he say that?”

“I don’t know.”

Daniel stood.

His jaw tightened.

“I knew it.”

I looked at him.

“Knew what?”

“He was preparing her.”

“For what?”

Daniel didn’t answer.

The door opened.

Detective Harris walked in.

“I heard enough.”

He looked at Sophie.

“Sweetheart, you’re not in trouble.”

She nodded.

“Can I ask you something?”

Sophie looked at me.

I nodded.

Detective Harris sat down.

“Did your father ever ask you to memorize anything?”

Sophie thought.

“Yes.”

“What?”

“Dates.”

“What dates?”

“Days when I took the medicine.”

Detective Harris exchanged a glance with me.

“Did he write them down?”

“Yes.”

“Where?”

“In his notebook.”

“Did he ever tell you why?”

Sophie shook her head.

“He said it was important.”

Detective Harris stood.

“Thank you.”

As he turned toward the door, Sophie suddenly grabbed his sleeve.

“Wait.”

He looked back.

“I remember something else.”

“What?”

She whispered:

“Dad wasn’t the only person who gave me the medicine.”

The room went silent.

I felt my heart stop.

“Who else?”

Sophie looked toward me.

“The doctor.”

“What doctor?”

“The lady who came to Dad’s house.”

Daniel stood.

“What lady?”

Sophie closed her eyes.

“I don’t know her name.”

Detective Harris crouched beside the bed.

“Can you describe her?”

Sophie nodded.

“She had dark hair.”

My stomach dropped.

“A white coat?”

“Yes.”

“Did she have glasses?”

“No.”

“Did she drive a car?”

“Yes.”

“What kind?”

Sophie thought.

“A black SUV.”

Detective Harris slowly stood.

He looked at me.

Then he pulled out his phone.

He showed me a photograph.

My blood ran cold.

It was a woman.

Dark hair.

White coat.

Early forties.

I recognized her immediately.

Not because I’d met her.

Because I’d seen her before.

On a framed photograph in Eric’s house.

Standing beside Eric.

At Sophie’s tenth birthday party.

I had assumed she was one of his coworkers.

But now I remembered the name written beneath the photograph.

Dr. Rachel Mercer.

And suddenly I understood why Eric had been so terrified of Daniel.

Because Daniel hadn’t been the danger.

He had been getting too close to the truth.

Detective Harris left the room.

I followed him.

“Who is she?”

“Dr. Rachel Mercer.”

“What do you know?”

“She runs a private endocrinology clinic.”

“Is she connected to Eric?”

“We’re checking.”

“Check faster.”

He looked at me.

“We found her name in Eric’s financial records.”

My heart sank.

“How much money?”

“Over the past six months?”

“Yes.”

“Twenty-seven thousand dollars.”

I stared at him.

“For what?”

“We don’t know.”

“And Eric paid her?”

“Indirectly.”

“How?”

“Several transfers went through a consulting company.”

“What company?”

Detective Harris hesitated.

“Mercer Medical Research.”

I felt sick.

“Research?”

“Yes.”

“What kind of research?”

“We’re trying to find out.”

Then his phone rang.

He answered.

“Detective Harris.”

He listened.

His expression changed.

“Say that again.”

A pause.

“Where?”

Another pause.

He looked at me.

“We have a problem.”

“What?”

“The lab finished analyzing the pink bottle.”

I waited.

“What was inside?”

He lowered the phone.

“It wasn’t a vitamin.”

“What was it?”

“A hormone-modulating compound.”

My heart pounded.

“Could it have caused what happened to Sophie?”

“We don’t know yet.”

“Then what did it do?”

He looked at me.

“It was designed to alter hormone levels.”

I couldn’t speak.

Then he said the words that changed everything.

“And according to the manufacturer, it isn’t approved for children.”

I stared at him.

“Why would Eric give it to my daughter?”

Detective Harris didn’t answer.

Because at that moment, his phone rang again.

He looked at the screen.

“It’s the search team.”

He answered.

Then his face went completely pale.

“What?”

He listened.

“Don’t touch anything.”

He ended the call.

I stepped closer.

“What did they find?”

He looked directly into my eyes.

“A second notebook.”

“Where?”

“In Eric’s locked garage.”

“What does it say?”

Detective Harris swallowed.

“It has your daughter’s name on the cover.”

My heart stopped.

“And beneath her name,” he said, “there’s a date.”

“What date?”

He looked at me.

“The date of her first injection.”

I couldn’t breathe.

“That was eleven months ago.”

Eleven months.

Long before the headaches.

Long before the vomiting.

Long before the positive pregnancy test.

Long before anyone suspected anything.

Someone had been doing something to my daughter for almost a year.

And suddenly the most terrifying question wasn’t what was wrong with Sophie?

It was:

What was Eric trying to make her become?

The date written beneath Sophie’s name was burned into my mind.

October 17.

Eleven months earlier.

I knew exactly where Sophie had been that day.

At least, I thought I did.

She had been nine years old.

It had been a Tuesday.

She’d come home from school complaining that she was tired. Eric had picked her up that afternoon because I had been working late.

At the time, there had been nothing unusual about it.

Nothing I could point to.

Nothing that would have made a mother stop and say, Something is wrong.

But now every ordinary memory felt contaminated.

The lunchbox he’d packed.

The medicine he said she needed.

The extra appointments he told me were routine.

The times he’d insisted on picking her up himself.

The weekend trips I’d thought were special father-daughter time.

I looked at Detective Harris.

“Eleven months.”

He nodded.

“That’s what the notebook suggests.”

“What happened on October seventeenth?”

“We’re trying to reconstruct that.”

“You need to tell me now.”

He looked at me carefully.

“Mrs. Morgan, we found more than the notebook.”

My stomach tightened.

“What?”

“A photograph.”

“Of Sophie?”

“Yes.”

I felt sick.

“What kind of photograph?”

“Her standing in front of a clinic.”

I closed my eyes.

“When was it taken?”

“October seventeenth.”

The hallway seemed to spin.

“She was nine.”

“I know.”

“Why would someone photograph my nine-year-old daughter outside a medical clinic?”

“That is what we’re investigating.”

I grabbed his arm.

“Then investigate faster.”

“I am.”

“No.” My voice cracked. “You don’t understand. She’s my daughter.”

“I understand.”

“No, you don’t.”

I pulled away from him.

“I trusted Eric.”

My voice dropped.

“I trusted him because he was her father.”

Detective Harris said nothing.

“And I trusted myself because I was her mother.”

I looked through the glass toward the room where Sophie was sleeping.

CONTINUE FOR NEXT PART….