part 5
PART 5
The search of the Whitmore mansion began while Emma was still in ICU.
Anna did not go.
That was the hardest decision.
Every instinct told her to stand inside that nursery and watch them lift every rug, open every drawer, seize every device.
But Emma kept reaching for her in sleep.
So Anna stayed by the bed.
Detective Alvarez called from the mansion.
“We found blood on the nursery floor.”
Anna closed her eyes.
“How much?”
“Enough.”
He paused.
“Also broken crib parts, a torn bracelet, and a wiped security server.”
Anna looked at Emma’s bare wrist.
Her smartwatch was gone.
“Find the watch.”
“We’re looking.”
In the background of the call, Anna heard Victoria shouting.
Then a male voice.
Not Carter.
Malcolm.
Anna’s hand tightened around the phone.
“Is Price there?”
Alvarez exhaled.
“He arrived with a lawyer.”
Of course he did.
Malcolm Price never ran when he could stand near power and pretend to be invited.
Anna looked through the glass wall of the ICU room.
Carter sat in the hallway between two officers, his head down.
Victoria sat apart from him, crying into a tissue.
Neither looked toward Emma.
That told Anna everything about love inside the Whitmore family.
It faced cameras.
Not hospital beds.
Alvarez called again twenty minutes later.
“We found the watch.”
Anna stood.
“Where?”
“In the east garden fountain.”
Anna’s throat tightened.
The little device had survived water damage enough to store the three-second location ping and fragments of audio.
A forensic tech extracted the first recovered clip by noon.
Emma’s voice.
Breathless.
Let go of me.
Then Carter.
Stop fighting.
Then Victoria.
Not the stomach.
Then Malcolm.
The car is ready.
Anna played the clip once.
Only once.
Doctor Reed found her in the hallway afterward.
“Anna.”
She looked up.
Her face was dry.
Her eyes were not.
“How is the baby?”
He hesitated.
“Heartbeat is present.”
“But we are watching closely.”
Anna nodded.
That was enough for one breath.
Maybe two.
Then Sophia Lang, Anna’s old federal colleague turned prosecutor, arrived at the hospital.
She hugged Anna once.
Hard.
Then opened her briefcase.
“Tell me everything.”
Anna looked toward Emma’s room.
“No.”
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“Let me show you.”
Read the full story 👉 Emma’s smartwatch survived in the garden fountain with audio proving Carter, Victoria, and Malcolm forced her out.
