Chapter 2 - THE WOMAN IN THE GREEN DRESS
The paramedics stabilized Emma’s neck and placed her on a stretcher.
Ethan stayed beside her.
Vanessa attempted to follow.
Detective Ruiz blocked her path.
“You remain here.”
“She is accusing me of a felony.”
“She is also being taken to a hospital.”
“I am family.”
Ruiz looked toward the torn green fabric caught on the railing.
“That is why you are not being questioned casually.”
Vanessa folded her arms.
The fake tears disappeared.
“I want my attorney.”
“You may call one.”
Margaret approached Ethan before the stretcher reached the door.
“Do not make decisions while you are frightened.”
Ethan stared at her.
“My wife was pushed down the stairs.”
“You do not know that.”
“I saw Vanessa standing above her.”
“You saw the end of an argument.”
Margaret lowered her voice.
“Emma has been under pressure.”
“The pregnancy has made her emotional.”
“She has become suspicious of everyone.”
Emma heard every word from the stretcher.
It was the same language Margaret had used for months.
Emotional.
Confused.
Unstable.
Difficult.
Words designed to make any accusation sound like illness.
Emma looked at Ethan.
“Do not let them clean the stairs.”
“I won’t.”
“Do not let anyone take my purse.”
Ruiz lifted it from beside the bottom step.
“I have it.”
Emma nodded.
“There is a recorder inside the lining.”
Vanessa’s face changed again.
“What recorder?”
Ruiz opened the purse carefully.
A small black device sat beneath the interior zipper.
Its red light was still blinking.
Margaret looked toward Emma.
“You recorded private family conversations?”
Emma closed her eyes.
“I recorded people planning to steal my child’s inheritance.”
The paramedics carried her through the front doors.
Ethan followed.
Behind them, the foyer erupted.
Vanessa demanded the device.
Margaret called the family attorney.
Charles ordered the staff to stop speaking.
Ruiz raised his voice.
“Anyone who interferes with evidence will be arrested.”
The mansion became silent.
At the hospital, Emma was taken directly for emergency imaging.
The next forty minutes felt endless.
Ethan stood in the hallway with blood on his shirt.
He had not realized it was there until a nurse pointed it out.
When the physician finally approached, Ethan could barely form the question.
“The baby?”
“The fetal heartbeat is strong.”
Ethan’s knees almost gave way.
The physician continued.
“Your wife has a fractured wrist, severe bruising, and a small placental separation.”
“She needs close monitoring.”
“Could she lose the baby?”
“There is a risk.”
“We are doing everything possible.”
Ethan entered the room.
Emma lay beneath a white blanket.
A monitor beside her displayed the baby’s heartbeat.
He sat carefully near the bed.
“I should have believed you.”
Emma looked toward the ceiling.
“You don’t even know what I was investigating.”
“I know you said Vanessa was trying to force you out.”
“You said I was misunderstanding her.”
Ethan lowered his head.
“I was wrong.”
“That is not enough yet.”
He accepted the words.
“What did you find?”
Emma turned toward him.
“Your father left a second trust.”
Ethan froze.
“My father died five years ago.”
“He also left thirty-eight percent of Ashford Medical Holdings to his first grandchild.”
“Our baby.”
Ethan stared at her.
“That is impossible.”
“The family trust gives Vanessa the next controlling block.”
“If our child is born, she loses it.”
He slowly sat back.
Emma continued.
“Three weeks ago, I found draft guardianship papers in Margaret’s office.”
“They declared me mentally incapable.”
“They gave your mother control of my medical decisions.”
“They gave Vanessa temporary custody of the baby if anything happened during the pregnancy.”
Ethan’s face lost color.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I tried.”
“You told me your family attorney was helping Margaret revise estate documents.”
“You said it was routine.”
He remembered.
The conversation in the kitchen.
Emma asking why Vanessa attended medical appointments.
Emma questioning the new family physician.
Emma asking whether the staircase cameras worked.
He had answered every concern with the same mistake.
My mother worries.
Vanessa is intense.
You are safe here.
He had confused familiarity with safety.
Emma looked at him.
“I contacted Detective Ruiz because someone had already tried to make me fall once.”
Ethan stopped breathing.
“What?”
“Last month.”
“The oil near the upper landing was not an accident.”
“The housekeeper who cleaned it disappeared the next day.”
“Her name was Elena Torres.”
“She sent me a photograph before she left.”
The photograph showed Vanessa holding a small glass bottle near the staircase.
Ethan looked toward the monitor.
The steady rhythm of his child’s heartbeat filled the room.
“What else did my family do?”
Emma answered quietly.
May you like
“I don’t know yet.”
“That is why the police are searching the house.”
