Chapter 6 - Four Minutes to Live
"Hold on, baby. Mommy’s right here. Mommy’s got you," Claire choked out, falling to her knees on the cold tile floor.
Chloe’s eyes were rolling back, her tiny hand gripping Claire’s fingers with barely any strength left. "It... hurts... Mommy... I can't... breathe..."
Claire whipped out her emergency injector. Without hesitating for a fraction of a second, she jammed the needle straight through Chloe’s chiffon dress into the outer muscle of the little girl’s thigh.
*CLICK.*
Claire held it firmly for ten agonizing seconds, counting out loud.
"One... two... three... breathe, Chloe, breathe for Mommy..."
As the life-saving medicine flooded the little girl’s bloodstream, Claire’s hand brushed against Barnaby, the stuffed teddy bear Chloe had dropped by the vanity.
Her fingers touched something hard beneath the bear's embroidered eye.
A tiny, pinhole camera lens.
Claire had installed that nanny cam inside the bear two months ago after Chloe came home from Daniel’s house with unexplained bruises. The live feed was stored on a cloud server Claire accessed from her smartwatch.
Claire tapped her watch screen with a trembling finger. The 7:15 PM footage buffered and began playing.
On the tiny screen, the high-definition video was crystal clear.
Vanessa Cross was standing over Chloe.
*"Eat it, you little brat. Stop crying! It’s just an almond. You’re faking it to get your daddy’s attention."*
Then, the audio recorded Chloe choking, wheezing, clutching her throat.
Vanessa’s reaction wasn't panic. It was cold, sadistic calculation.
Vanessa opened Chloe’s medical kit, took the two Epipens, snapped them over the edge of the marble counter, and tossed them into the trash.
*"If you don’t learn to obey me, Chloe, you won't survive this family anyway. Now stay in here until you quiet down."*
The footage showed Vanessa casually smoothing her ivory gown, checking her red lipstick in the mirror, and locking the door behind her—leaving a six-year-old child to suffocate in the dark.
Claire’s tears vanished.
In their place rose a quiet, terrifying rage that could burn down an entire empire.
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