Chapter 1 - THE TABLET UNDER THE PINK BLANKET
The ambulance doors closed before Alejandro could ask Sophie another question.
He sat beside the stretcher while the paramedic placed an oxygen mask over her pale face.
Sophie’s fingers remained wrapped around his hand.
Even through the fever, she kept looking toward the rear windows as though Valerie might appear behind them.
Alejandro leaned closer.
“You are safe with me.”
Sophie’s eyes filled with tears.
“You said that before.”
The words cut deeper than anger ever could.
At the hospital, doctors moved Sophie into the pediatric emergency unit.
Her fever had climbed above 103 degrees.
Her breathing sounded shallow and rough.
A chest scan confirmed pneumonia in the lower part of her right lung.
Dr. Elena Park asked Alejandro for a complete list of Sophie’s medications.
He could not provide one.
Valerie had handled everything.
He knew the name of the antibiotic but not the dosage.
He did not know when Sophie had received the last pill.
He did not even know whether she had received any pills at all.
Valerie arrived twenty minutes later wearing a beige coat and carrying Sophie’s overnight bag.
Her face showed perfect concern.
“How is my sweet girl?”
Sophie turned away from her.
Alejandro stepped between them.
“Do not go near her.”
Valerie stopped.
“Alejandro, she is frightened.”
“She is frightened of you.”
Valerie’s expression changed for only a second.
Then she began crying.
“You cannot seriously believe a sick child over your wife.”
Alejandro remembered the hidden pin.
The cold milk.
The peppermint candies inside the medicine box.
He remembered Sophie saying the pain started after every glass Valerie brought.
“I believe my daughter.”
Valerie stared at him.
Before she could answer, an older woman hurried into the hospital corridor.
Rosa Delgado was Marissa’s mother and Sophie’s grandmother.
She had driven from San Antonio after Alejandro called.
Her silver hair had been pulled into a loose bun.
She carried Sophie’s worn pink blanket against her chest.
The moment Sophie saw her, she began sobbing.
“Grandma.”
Rosa pushed past Valerie and entered the room.
She kissed Sophie’s forehead.
Then she looked at Alejandro.
“What happened?”
Alejandro told her everything.
He expected shock.
Instead, Rosa became very still.
She turned toward Valerie.
“Where is Sophie’s tablet?”
Valerie blinked.
“What tablet?”
“The purple one Marissa gave her.”
“I have never seen it.”
Sophie lifted one trembling hand toward her blanket.
“It’s inside.”
Rosa opened the hidden zipper sewn along the blanket’s edge.
A small tablet slid onto the hospital bed.
Valerie took one step backward.
Rosa turned it on.
The battery was almost empty.
A video application was already open.
The most recent recording showed Valerie standing inside Sophie’s bedroom at 2:14 in the morning.
She held a bottle with Dr. Claudia Harris’s name printed across the label.
Valerie poured the liquid into the sink.
Then she replaced it with water.
May you like
Rosa looked up slowly.
“This is not the only video.”
