Chapter 11 - THE MACHINE BESIDE HER CRIB
The monitor had been removed from our home years earlier.
Grant said the company needed it for routine servicing. I never saw it again.
Investigators located its serial number in Anna’s records. The device was one of seventeen monitors the company knew could fail to detect dangerous changes in breathing.
Mercer Pediatric Systems continued supplying them because replacing the units would have triggered a costly federal recall.
Grant had signed the distribution approval.
I confronted him during his next supervised visit.
The family-center coordinator sat between us while Lily colored in another room.
“You placed a defective monitor beside your daughter’s crib.”
Grant’s face went white.
“I didn’t know Lily received that unit.”
“You signed the shipment list.”
“My mother handled individual orders.”
“Did you know the model was defective?”
He glanced toward the coordinator.
“I was told the failures came from improper use.”
“Anna knew the truth.”
At the mention of his sister, his eyes changed.
“Leave Anna alone.”
“Where is she?”
“I don’t know.”
“You hid a memory card inside Lily’s rabbit.”
Grant stared at me.
“I never touched that card.”
“Then who did?”
He leaned forward.
“My mother ordered thousands of those rabbits for the company’s charity program. They were stored at our warehouse.”
Anyone with access could have hidden the card.
Grant lowered his voice.
“Anna is dangerous.”
“That’s what you told everyone about me.”
“She tried to take Lily.”
“Why?”
He gripped the edge of the table.
“Because she thought Lily was Emily.”
The room became very still.
According to Grant, Anna saw our daughter outside preschool and became convinced she was the baby taken from her at the shelter.
“That’s impossible,” I said. “I gave birth to Lily.”
“I know.”
“Then why would Anna believe that?”
Grant looked toward the closed playroom door.
“Because Mom used Lily’s photographs.”
Beatrice had created false social-media pages and medical records to convince Anna that her daughter had been renamed and raised inside Grant’s family.
It kept Anna searching in the wrong direction.
It also made her appear delusional whenever she approached our home or Lily’s school.
“Where is Emily?” I asked.
Grant’s eyes filled.
“I don’t know.”
“You helped your mother hide a child.”
“I was twenty-two. Dad said Anna was unstable.”
“And later?”
He looked away.
“Later, I knew enough not to ask.”
The coordinator ended the meeting when Grant became agitated.
As I reached the hallway, he called after me.
“Anna didn’t put that card in the rabbit.”
I turned.
“Who did?”
“The woman who replaced her at the company.”
My former supervisor.
May you like
Catherine Doyle.
The woman who had encouraged me to leave my accounting career and become a full-time mother.
