Chapter 2 - THE FRACTURE
The ambulance took Ethan and me to St. Catherine’s Children’s Hospital.
Victor followed in his own car because the paramedics needed room to stabilize Ethan’s arm.
Serena tried to enter the ambulance.
The lead paramedic stopped her.
“You are not riding with this child until police determine what occurred.”
She stared at him as though no one had ever refused her before.
Inside the ambulance, Ethan whimpered whenever the vehicle turned.
I sat beside the stretcher with one hand against his hair.
“You’re safe.”
“Home?”
“We’re going to the doctor.”
“Daddy?”
“He’s coming.”
The paramedic cut Ethan’s sleeve to examine his shoulder and elbow without moving them unnecessarily.
“Possible dislocation and fracture,” she said. “Did someone yank him?”
“Yes.”
She looked at the bruise forming across my abdomen.
“Were you assaulted too?”
“Yes.”
I hated how quiet the word sounded.
At the hospital, Dr. Naomi Feld ordered X-rays, pain medication, and a full child-protection examination.
The images showed a dislocated elbow and a small fracture near the upper arm.
The injuries were consistent with forceful pulling.
“They are treatable,” Dr. Feld said. “But this required significant force.”
Ethan needed sedation while an orthopedic specialist realigned the joint and stabilized the fracture.
Victor arrived before the procedure.
His face changed when he saw the X-ray.
“Will he recover?”
“We expect good healing,” Dr. Feld answered. “He will need follow-up and protection from further injury.”
Further.
The word hung between us.
A child-protection nurse examined older marks on Ethan’s legs and back.
Two bruises could be explained by ordinary toddler falls.
One narrow bruise around his ankle could not be explained so easily.
Victor said he had never seen it.
I had.
Three days earlier, I noticed the mark during bath time. Serena told me Ethan caught his foot beneath a toy chest. When I suggested calling his pediatrician, she accused me of dramatizing normal childhood injuries.
I had allowed her certainty to overrule mine.
The police arrived while Ethan slept after the procedure.
Detective Hannah Cole interviewed me separately from Victor and Serena.
I described the foyer exactly as I remembered it.
“Why did you enter barefoot?” she asked.
“I heard Ethan screaming from the nursery hallway. I ran before putting on my shoes.”
“Where had you been?”
“Folding his laundry in the upstairs linen room.”
“Who else was home?”
“Serena. Two kitchen employees. The evening housekeeper. Security outside.”
“Where was Victor?”
“At a company dinner.”
Detective Cole studied my employment record.
I had worked at Blackwood House for fourteen months as a housemaid and occasional childcare assistant.
I was not Ethan’s legal nanny.
Serena had repeatedly reminded me of that distinction.
“What is your relationship with the child?” Cole asked.
“I care for him most mornings and evenings.”
“Why?”
“Victor’s schedule is demanding. Serena dislikes nursery routines.”
“Is Serena Ethan’s mother?”
“No. Victor is engaged to her.”
Ethan’s mother, Amelia Blackwood, had died eighteen months earlier in a car accident.
Victor rarely spoke of her.
Serena moved into the house six months after Amelia’s death.
Detective Cole placed the prewritten incident report on the table.
Serena claimed it was a template created after two earlier episodes involving me.
“What episodes?”
“She says Ethan was injured twice while under your supervision.”
My stomach tightened.
The first occurred when he cut his lip after falling near the garden fountain.
The second involved a burn on his wrist from warm bathwater. I had not been bathing him. Serena had.
Both official reports named me as the responsible employee.
I had never seen them.
Victor entered the interview room with his attorney’s permission.
“Lily, did you sign either report?”
“No.”
“Did anyone ask you for a statement?”
“No.”
His face hardened.
Detective Cole interrupted.
“Mr. Blackwood, you will have your own interview.”
Victor nodded and left.
Before the door closed, he said:
“I believe what I saw.”
It was not the same as believing everything I said.
But it was more than Serena expected.
At midnight, Dr. Feld returned with a finding from Ethan’s bloodwork.
He had a strong sedative in his system.
May you like
No hospital medication explained the level.
Someone had given him a prescription drug before Serena dragged him into the foyer.
