PART 19 – I Had Asked the Officers to Examine the Dining Room Camera, and I Was Finally Ready to Hear What They Had Discovered

The waiting continued.

I had reached a point where I no longer knew what time it was without checking my phone.

I had spent the night in the hospital.

My daughter was recovering from surgery.

My husband and his mother were nearby.

And the officers were still dealing with the questions surrounding the magnets.

I looked at Daniel.

He seemed different from the man I had expected to see when he arrived.

I couldn't explain it.

Perhaps I had expected too much from him.

Perhaps I had never imagined that he would question me before asking about our daughter.

Whatever the reason, something between us had changed.

I didn't want to think about that yet.

Lily needed both her parents.

She needed people who would put her recovery first.

I looked toward the medical area again.

I asked whether there was any news.

The answer was that the medical staff were continuing to monitor her.

I nodded.

I was grateful she had survived the operation.

I was grateful the doctors had acted.

But the gratitude came with a terrible question.

How had this happened?

I returned to the dining room camera in my thoughts.

I had told the officers about it because I believed it could help.

I wanted them to look at the recording from the relevant period.

I wanted them to establish who had been in the room and what had happened.

I wasn't interested in hearing another opinion about my parenting.

I wanted something that could be checked.

Daniel approached me.

"Rachel, we need to talk about what happens next."

I looked at him.

"First, we need to know what happened to Lily."

He didn't answer.

I turned away.

There would be time for other conversations.

There would be time to discuss our marriage.

There would be time to discuss why he had treated me as though I had deliberately harmed our daughter.

But none of those conversations could replace the investigation.

I thought about Patricia.

She had arrived with Daniel and immediately joined the accusations.

I wondered whether she had anything useful to tell the officers.

I didn't know.

I wasn't going to decide that for them.

Everyone who might have relevant information needed to be questioned.

That was all I wanted.

I checked my phone.

There was nothing new that could help me understand what had happened.

I put it away.

I didn't want to spend the rest of the night staring at a screen.

I wanted to be beside Lily.

The folded blanket remained nearby.

I picked it up and placed it carefully on the chair.

I had carried it from home because I thought Lily might need it.

Now it seemed to represent the beginning of everything.

The moment she appeared at my bedroom door.

The moment I realized something was terribly wrong.

The moment I became a mother trying desperately to save her child.

I took a breath.

I was ready to hear the truth.

Even if it was painful.

Especially if it was painful.

Click here to continue reading: PART 20: I Wanted the Truth More Than an Apology, Because My Daughter Deserved to Know That Someone Had Finally Taken Her Pain Seriously