Chapter 5 - The Grandmother Who Took HimDaniel screamed Owen’s name through the hospital corridor.
“Owen, stay in your room!”
“But Dad—”
“Lock the door!”
He rushed toward the nursery.
Smoke was already curling beneath the door.
“Marcus!”
No answer.
Daniel kicked the door open.
Flames climbed the curtains.
The crib Claire had spent three weekends choosing was burning.
A line of fire raced across the rug toward the wall.
Marcus was gone.
Daniel grabbed the extinguisher mounted in the upstairs hallway.
He sprayed the base of the flames.
Rosa called emergency services.
Within minutes, the house alarms screamed.
Owen emerged despite Daniel’s instructions.
“Dad!”
“Outside!”
Daniel carried him downstairs.
Rosa followed.
Firefighters arrived before the blaze reached the roof.
Most of the nursery was destroyed.
The rest of the house survived.
Detective Elena Ruiz arrived shortly after midnight.
She was forty-three, sharp-eyed, calm, and immediately suspicious of everything.
“You believe your brother started it?”
Daniel showed her the motion alert.
The camera feed had frozen after Marcus appeared.
Unfortunately, the cloud recording had somehow been disabled.
Ruiz frowned.
“Who controls your security system?”
“My company’s technology division.”
“And who oversees that?”
Daniel stared at her.
“Marcus.”
Ruiz made a note.
“Convenient.”
Daniel laughed bitterly.
“That word keeps coming up.”
The detective examined the hidden camera from the dining room and the memory card.
“This may be enough for a warrant.”
“For Marcus?”
“For several people.”
Daniel glanced toward Owen, sleeping beneath a blanket in the back of an ambulance while a paramedic checked him.
“He framed my son.”
“We don’t know that yet.”
“I do.”
Ruiz looked at him.
“Knowing and proving are different.”
That sentence followed Daniel into the hospital three hours later.
Claire woke shortly after dawn.
Daniel sat beside her.
Her first question was,
“Where’s Owen?”
“He’s safe.”
She studied his face.
“What happened?”
Daniel told her everything.
The hidden camera.
Margaret.
Marcus.
The nursery fire.
Claire listened without interrupting.
When Daniel finished, she turned toward the window.
Tears filled her eyes.
“I blamed Owen too.”
Daniel reached for her.
She pulled away.
“I didn’t say it out loud, but I did.”
“Claire—”
“The vitamins. The note. The window. Every time something happened, I wondered if he hated me.”
“He was being set up.”
“I know.”
Her voice cracked.
“And I’m his stepmother. I was supposed to protect him.”
Daniel looked down.
“I’m his father.”
Neither spoke.
A nurse entered carrying flowers.
“For Mrs. Parker.”
Daniel frowned.
“Who sent them?”
“There’s a card.”
Claire opened it.
Her face drained of color.
Daniel took the card.
Only six words were written.
Your first warning should have worked.
No signature.
Ruiz returned immediately.
The bouquet was confiscated.
Inside the arrangement, police found something tucked beneath the flowers.
A tiny silver needle.
Covered in the same uterine stimulant found on Claire.
The detective’s expression hardened.
“This is no longer a family dispute.”
“What is it?” Daniel asked.
“Attempted murder.”
Claire whispered,
“Why would Marcus want to kill my baby?”
Daniel didn’t answer.
Because one possibility had already begun forming.
Money.
Three years earlier, Daniel and Marcus had inherited Parker Development from their father.
Daniel owned fifty-five percent.
Marcus owned forty-five.
Under their father’s trust, Daniel’s shares would eventually pass equally to his children.
Until Claire became pregnant, Owen was Daniel’s only heir.
Marcus had always joked about it.
“If Owen ever becomes CEO, I’m moving to Tahiti.”
But if Owen were declared emotionally unstable—
and if Claire and the new baby disappeared—
who controlled the family shares if Daniel died?
Daniel called his attorney.
The answer made everything worse.
“If both of your children were unable to inherit,” attorney Jonathan Bell explained, “the voting rights revert temporarily to the surviving Parker sibling.”
Marcus.
Daniel ended the call.
Claire watched him.
“It’s about the company?”
“Maybe.”
“No.”
She shook her head.
“Something doesn’t make sense.”
“What?”
“If Marcus only wanted control someday, why do this now?”
Daniel paused.
Claire continued.
“And why involve your mother?”
That question had no answer.
Detective Ruiz returned later with another piece of information.
The medication on the needles wasn’t obtained from a pharmacy.
It was hospital-grade.
“We traced the lot number,” she explained.
“Where?”
“St. Matthew’s.”
Claire stared.
“This hospital?”
Ruiz nodded.
“Someone stole several vials three months ago.”
Daniel asked,
“Who had access?”
“We’re pulling records.”
The door opened.
Dr. Reed entered.
She looked uncomfortable.
“Detective, you asked about archived visitor records?”
Ruiz stood.
“Yes.”
The doctor handed her a printed list.
“Three months ago, on the date the medication disappeared, someone visited the maternity research floor using a temporary vendor badge.”
Ruiz read the name.
Her eyebrows lifted.
“Marcus Parker?”
Daniel stood.
“That proves it.”
“No.”
Ruiz turned the sheet around.
“The badge wasn’t issued to Marcus.”
Daniel stared at the printed name.
Margaret Parker.
Claire whispered,
“She stole it?”
Ruiz nodded slowly.
“Looks that way.”
Daniel’s phone buzzed.
A message.
Unknown number.
You’re blaming the wrong Parker.
Attached was a photograph.
Daniel opened it.
The image appeared to have been taken moments earlier.
Owen was standing outside the hospital café with Rosa.
Behind him—
Margaret Parker stood twenty feet away.
Watching him.
Daniel ran.
By the time he reached the café, Owen was gone.
May you like
Rosa was lying unconscious beside an overturned chair.
And Margaret had vanished.
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