Chapter 2 - Three Missing Minutes

The ambulance doors closed with Claire inside, and I climbed in beside her.

My mother tried to follow.

I stepped down from the ambulance and blocked her path.

“No.”

“Nathan, don’t be ridiculous. I am her family.”

“You were standing behind her when she went over a railing.”

Her eyes flashed. “And I told you she slipped.”

“Then you can tell the police.”

For the first time that night, my mother looked genuinely startled.

Behind her, guests pretended not to listen.

The mansion had been full of donors, board members, neighbors, and people my mother considered useful. She hated public embarrassment more than almost anything.

Almost.

At the hospital, Claire was rushed upstairs. I sat beneath white fluorescent lights with her wedding ring pressed into my palm. A nurse had removed it because her fingers were swelling.

Forty minutes later, Dr. Sato came out.

“Your wife is bruised and she has a fractured wrist. The baby’s heart rate is stable. We’re keeping her overnight because of the fall, but right now both are stable.”

I closed my eyes.

Stable.

It was the best word I had ever heard.

When I entered Claire’s room, she looked smaller in the hospital bed than she had at home. Her wrist was wrapped. A monitor traced our daughter’s heartbeat in soft, fast rhythms.

I sat beside her.

“Tell me exactly what happened.”

Claire swallowed. “Your mother asked me to come upstairs. She said she wanted to apologize.”

“For what?”

“She said she was sorry about the trust documents.”

My chest tightened.

Two weeks earlier, I had changed the Mercer Family Trust so that if anything happened to me, Claire and our unborn daughter would control my voting shares. My mother had called it emotional blackmail.

Claire continued. “She said she wanted to start over. Then she told me the railing latch was loose and asked me to look at it.”

I stared at her.

“What latch?”

“There wasn’t one. I turned around to ask what she meant.” Claire’s voice dropped. “That’s when she shoved me.”

I reached for her good hand.

“Did you see her face?”

“Yes.”

“What did she look like?”

Claire’s eyes filled, but she did not cry.

“Calm.”

My phone vibrated.

It was Lucas Reed, our head of security.

I answered.

“Nathan, we found out how the camera went down.”

“How?”

“There was a manual override from the security office.”

“Who used it?”

A pause.

Then Lucas said, “Your mother’s access code.”

I looked at Claire.

Lucas wasn’t finished.

“But that’s not the part that scares me.”

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“What is?”

“Her code was used while she was already upstairs with Claire.”