Chapter 7 - The Story Derek Wanted Everyone to Believe.
By noon, Derek's version of the corridor incident had already begun to spread.
He claimed Leah had suffered a breakdown after delivery.
He claimed he entered the hospital because she called him for help.
He claimed Luca Moretti, a stranger with a personal grudge, appeared and attacked him.
He claimed Leah was too confused to understand what she had witnessed.
Every lie was built around one ugly assumption.
If Leah looked exhausted enough, frightened enough, or emotional enough, people might decide her memory could not be trusted.
Luca sat across from her while a hospital attorney reviewed the security report.
"Do not let his confidence make you think his story is strong."
Leah looked at him bitterly.
"Confidence has worked pretty well for him so far."
"Because he usually chooses rooms without cameras."
Nora entered carrying a laptop.
"We found the corridor footage."
Leah stood.
"Is it intact?"
"Mostly."
That word changed the room.
"Mostly?"
Nora turned the screen around.
The recording showed Leah backing away with Emma.
It showed Derek approaching.
It showed him reaching toward her.
Then the image froze.
When it resumed, Derek was on the floor and Luca was standing several feet away.
Six seconds were missing.
Leah stared at the gap in disbelief.
"Of course they are."
Luca leaned toward the screen.
"Only this camera?"
"The camera across the nurses' station has the same missing window."
"Someone edited both."
The attorney frowned.
"Or the server skipped."
Luca looked at him.
"Two synchronized cameras skipping the same six seconds?"
The attorney stopped talking.
Leah laughed softly, and the sound was almost a sob.
"This is what they do."
Luca watched her.
"What do you mean?"
Leah looked down at Emma.
"Derek never tells one huge lie."
She remembered arguments that ended with Derek calmly insisting he had never raised his voice.
She remembered messages that vanished from shared devices.
She remembered Victoria explaining that Leah was "sensitive" whenever Leah objected to being insulted.
"He changes one small piece."
Her voice grew steadier.
"Then another."
"Then he waits until your version sounds more complicated than his."
Luca nodded slowly.
"Good."
Leah glared at him.
"What is good about that?"
"You understand his method."
He tapped the frozen video frame.
"That means we stop arguing with his story and start proving the pattern."
Nora suddenly leaned closer to the laptop.
"Wait."
She rewound the footage.
"The wall reflection."
Leah looked.
A framed glass directory hung opposite the corridor camera.
The camera itself lost six seconds, but the polished glass reflected part of the hallway from another angle.
Nora zoomed in.
The image was small and distorted, but it showed Derek lunging forward.
It showed Luca intercepting him.
It showed Derek falling after trying to pull away.
The attorney exhaled.
"That's enough to challenge his statement."
Luca's phone rang.
He answered.
"Moretti."
His eyes hardened as he listened.
"When?"
Leah watched him.
"What happened?"
Luca ended the call.
"Victoria filed an emergency guardianship petition."
Leah felt the floor disappear beneath her.
"For Emma?"
"For you and Emma."
"She can't become my guardian."
"She can ask."
"On what grounds?"
Luca looked toward the hospital attorney.
The attorney's face was grim.
"She submitted a psychiatric evaluation stating you may be experiencing severe postpartum confusion."
Leah stared at him.
"I have never had a psychiatric evaluation."
Nora went completely still.
"You did have one visitor yesterday who said she was from social services."
Leah remembered the soft-spoken woman who had asked her about sleep, stress, and whether she felt overwhelmed.
She had thought it was standard hospital procedure.
"She wasn't from social services?"
Nora shook her head.
"No."
May you like
Luca closed the laptop.
"Then we find out who she really was."
