Chapter 5 - A Warning in the NurseryMaria spun around.
The door was moving.
Slowly.
No wind.
No reason.
She grabbed it.
“Who's there?”
Silence.
She opened the door completely.
The hallway was empty.
Maria's heart hammered.
She ran downstairs with the photograph.
Daniel was in the kitchen.
“What happened?”
She handed it to him.
His face hardened.
“Where did you get this?”
“My room.”
“Who was inside?”
“I don't know.”
Daniel immediately called security.
Then he locked every door in the house.
Sarah stood nearby, silent.
Olivia examined the photograph.
“It's recent.”
“How do you know?” Daniel asked.
“The flowers behind Maria.”
She pointed.
“They were on the hallway table yesterday.”
Daniel stared at the photo.
The person who took it had been inside the house.
Close enough to see Maria holding Noah.
Close enough to know where she slept.
Maria felt exposed.
“Why would someone threaten me?”
Daniel looked at her.
“I don't know.”
Olivia frowned.
“Maybe because she saw something.”
Maria remembered the shadow.
“The man behind Sarah.”
Daniel looked at her.
“What man?”
Maria showed him the original picture.
Daniel's expression changed again.
Sarah walked over.
She saw it.
And immediately dropped her glass.
It shattered.
Everyone turned.
Daniel stared at his wife.
“Sarah.”
She didn't answer.
“Do you know him?”
“No.”
“You reacted like you do.”
“I don't.”
“You're lying.”
Sarah backed away.
“I said I don't know him.”
Olivia looked at her mother.
“Mom.”
Sarah turned.
“Go upstairs.”
“Why?”
“Now.”
Olivia didn't move.
Daniel stepped between them.
“Don't talk to her like that.”
Sarah's eyes filled with tears.
“You don't understand.”
“Then explain.”
She shook her head.
“I can't.”
Daniel's voice dropped.
“You'd better start.”
Sarah looked at Maria.
Then at Noah, who was sleeping in the nursery.
Finally she whispered,
“Someone has been trying to take him.”
Maria's breath caught.
“What?”
Sarah continued,
“Before Noah was born, I received messages.”
Daniel stared.
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“Because they knew things.”
“What things?”
“Things only someone in this house could know.”
Silence.
Sarah looked directly at Maria.
“You were here.”
Maria's eyes widened.
“You think it was me?”
“No.”
Sarah's voice broke.
“I never thought it was you.”
“Then why?”
“Because whoever it was wanted me to think the threat came from you.”
Daniel turned pale.
“So this entire time…”
Sarah nodded.
“Someone has been building a story.”
“What story?”
“That Maria was dangerous.”
Maria felt the room tilt.
All the strange little moments suddenly returned.
The missing key.
The anonymous complaints.
The message blaming her for Noah's fever.
The accusation from the neighbor.
She had thought they were coincidences.
They weren't.
Someone had been constructing evidence.
Against her.
Then Olivia whispered,
“Dad.”
She pointed toward the nursery monitor.
The screen showed Noah sleeping.
Then a shadow crossed the doorway.
Daniel ran upstairs.
Maria followed.
They burst into the nursery.
No one was there.
The window was locked.
The door was locked.
Noah was sleeping peacefully.
Then Olivia screamed from behind them.
“Dad!”
They turned.
She was staring at the monitor.
The camera replayed the room.
A figure had entered.
Not through the door.
Not through the window.
The person had come from behind the crib.
There was a hidden panel.
Daniel rushed to the crib and pulled it away from the wall.
A narrow maintenance door appeared behind it.
He stared.
“I never knew this was here.”
Maria looked inside.
There was a dark tunnel leading into the wall.
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And from somewhere deep inside it…
came the sound of footsteps.
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