Chapter 8 - The Assessment.
Rosa obtained a copy of the screening by emergency request that afternoon.
The document was only four pages long.
Its implications were enormous.
Dr. Vivian Shaw had written that Noah showed signs of inconsistent bonding with his mother.
She claimed Claire appeared withdrawn, fatigued, and emotionally detached.
Claire stared at the paper in disbelief.
"I was asleep."
Rosa nodded grimly.
"The assessment says you participated."
Evan read the quoted statement attributed to Claire.
Sometimes I wish I could disappear.
Claire's eyes filled with tears.
"I never said that to her."
Leah leaned over the table.
"Did you ever say it to Mom?"
Claire thought back.
Then her face changed.
"Once."
She looked at Evan.
"The night Noah wouldn't stop crying."
Evan remembered being in Dallas for a client meeting.
Claire had called Marianne because she was terrified something was wrong with the baby.
Marianne stayed until morning.
"She recorded you," Leah said.
Rosa asked Claire to search her old messages.
There it was.
A text sent at 3:14 a.m.
I am so tired I feel like disappearing for one whole day.
Marianne had replied with a heart emoji.
Rosa photographed the full exchange.
"Context matters."
Evan walked to the window.
Every kindness his mother had offered now seemed to contain a hidden hook.
"Can we get this doctor in trouble?"
"Eventually," Rosa said.
"First we prove what happened."
She called Dr. Shaw's office and requested the authorization form for the assessment.
The receptionist emailed it ten minutes later.
Claire's signature appeared at the bottom.
Claire looked at it once.
"That's not mine."
Evan leaned closer.
It was close enough to fool a stranger.
But he knew the way Claire wrote the letter C.
This one was wrong.
Rosa's expression became focused.
"Forgery changes the case."
She contacted the county prosecutor's intake office and began preserving evidence.
Then Leah received a call from Denise.
Her voice was frantic.
"Someone just came to my house."
"Who?"
"A man in a black SUV."
Denise had locked the doors and called police.
The man left before officers arrived.
But he had pushed an envelope through her mail slot.
Inside was five thousand dollars in cash.
There was no note.
Rosa told Denise not to touch anything else and arranged for the envelope to be secured.
Evan stared at his mother’s name across the court filing.
"She knows Denise talked."
"Probably," Rosa said.
"How?"
No one had an answer.
Then Claire looked toward Evan's coat hanging over a chair.
"Your watch."
Evan frowned.
"What about it?"
"Your mother gave it to you for your birthday."
It was a high-end smartwatch linked to a family device plan Marianne had insisted on paying.
Evan removed it immediately.
Rosa powered it down and sealed it in a kitchen container.
The betrayal felt absurdly intimate.
Claire suddenly said, "There's another device."
Everyone looked at her.
She pointed toward Noah's diaper bag.
"The baby monitor."
They had brought the portable parent unit from home.
Rosa examined it.
The monitor used cloud access.
The account had been set up by Marianne because she said Claire was too tired after delivery.
Evan opened the settings.
Three authorized users appeared.
Claire.
Evan.
And Marianne Mercer.
Under activity history, remote access had occurred almost every night for the past month.
Including audio.
Claire sank into a chair.
"She heard everything."
Rosa did not answer.
She was looking at the most recent login.
May you like
It had occurred twelve minutes earlier.
From inside the building they were currently hiding in.
