Chapter 2 - THE VIDEO THEY WANTED
The dispatcher told me not to move the traps.
I placed Ethan on the couch, elevated his foot with a cushion, and stayed between him and Carly while my mother argued that emergency services were unnecessary.
“He isn’t bleeding,” she said.
“He was caught in two mouse traps.”
“You removed them.”
“That does not undo it.”
Carly tried to leave with her phone. I told the dispatcher. Two officers arrived before she reached the driveway.
They separated us immediately.
One photographed the cut insole, the traps, Ethan’s reddened toes, and the position of Carly’s phone. Another placed each trap in a separate evidence bag after wearing gloves.
Carly called it a harmless prank.
My mother said she had seen nothing until Ethan screamed.
Then she told the officers I had become unstable since my husband Aaron died.
The lie was polished enough to frighten me.
At the hospital, X-rays showed no fracture. Ethan had deep bruising and soft-tissue injuries across three toes. The doctor recommended pain relief, limited walking, and follow-up if swelling increased.
The physical damage was expected to heal.
The moment a nurse brought replacement hospital socks, Ethan began crying.
“No shoes.”
“You don’t have to wear any,” I promised.
He clung to me while a social worker documented what had happened.
My phone vibrated repeatedly.
Carly had uploaded a twenty-two-second video to a private family group.
It began after the traps were removed.
It showed me holding Ethan and saying, “I’ll destroy them.”
It did not include his scream, Carly’s laughter, or my mother calling him an accident.
The caption read:
Emily threatened us after another one of Ethan’s outbursts.
My hands went numb.
Someone had edited the video while I was in the ambulance.
Then a formal email arrived from Martin Hale, the attorney administering my late father’s estate.
My mother had filed an emergency petition asking the probate court to suspend me as trustee of the Parker Property Trust.
Attached as evidence was Carly’s edited recording.
The hearing was scheduled for Monday morning.
May you like
My mother had reported me to a court less than an hour after Ethan’s injury.
And the petition itself had been drafted two days before the traps snapped.
