Chapter 7 - The Final Gambit
Margaret stepped forward, pretending to reach out to comfort Emily, her face wearing a mask of fabricated motherly concern. 'Ethan, darling, call the doctor. She’s not herself. She’s clearly a danger to herself and the baby.'
Margaret’s fingers brushed Emily’s hair, a touch that felt like a spider crawling over her skin. She leaned in close, her breath smelling of peppermint and malice. 'No one will believe you, Emily,' she hissed, the words lost to Ethan, who had stood up to reach for his phone. 'You are the hysterical girl who threw herself down the stairs. By tomorrow, you’ll be in a facility, and I’ll be the one raising your child. He belongs to me.'
Emily felt a surge of cold, sharp anger override her fear. It was a primal, desperate reaction. She scanned the room, her eyes darting across the walls, looking for a way out, for a witness, for anything that could cut through the suffocating web of lies. And then, she saw it. The little black dome in the corner of the ceiling, its red light blinking with a steady, robotic rhythm. The security camera. She had insisted on it months ago, a minor disagreement that Margaret had laughed off as 'excessive paranoia.'
