Chapter 2 - THE SCISSORS WERE NOT THE WORST THING
Police separated everyone.
Nathan immediately told them he had struck Judith when he entered and believed she and Melissa were still attacking me while I held Ruby.
He did not minimize it.
Did not pretend it never happened.
He explained exactly what he had seen.
That mattered.
So did the injuries on my face and shoulder.
So did the scattered nursery.
So did the scissors.
Ruby was taken for a precautionary pediatric examination.
Anna came with us.
She had been asleep in the downstairs guest room recovering from an emergency C-section.
At least, she thought she had been sleeping normally.
When she saw Ruby, she burst into tears.
Then she saw my face.
“What happened?”
Nathan sat beside her.
His voice broke.
“My mom and Melissa.”
Anna looked confused.
“What?”
Then Nathan held up the temporary caregiver form inside an evidence sleeve.
Her confusion became terror.
“I didn’t sign that.”
“I know.”
Anna touched her robe pocket.
“My phone.”
“The police have it.”
Her face changed.
“I thought I lost it.”
“When?”
“Yesterday.”
I looked at Nathan.
He looked at me.
Yesterday.
Melissa had carried Anna’s phone into the nursery today.
This was not an impulsive decision after a family disagreement.
Something had been happening before I arrived.
The pediatrician examined Ruby carefully.
No cuts.
No apparent injury from the scissors.
No bruising around the ankle.
Nothing suggesting the blades had touched her skin.
I almost collapsed with relief.
Then the doctor asked:
“What exactly were they doing?”
I told her.
Judith was holding small craft scissors near the edge of Ruby’s sock while Melissa held the baby’s ankle.
The doctor frowned.
“Was there something underneath the sock?”
Anna looked up sharply.
“Yes.”
She stood too fast and winced from her incision.
“Her monitor.”
“What monitor?”
Nathan answered.
“Ruby had a breathing scare after birth. The pediatrician recommended a wearable oxygen monitor for a few weeks.”
Anna looked at me.
“It fits around her foot.”
I remembered now.
A small electronic sensor inside a fabric wrap.
Under Ruby’s outer sock.
Anna could see readings on her phone.
Her missing phone.
My stomach dropped.
The doctor asked:
“Was the sensor still on when you picked her up?”
I thought.
“No.”
Nathan stared.
“What?”
I shook my head.
“I remember seeing the fabric strap loose beside the bassinet.”
Police later found it beneath the changing table.
The outer sock had been partly cut.
The sensor had been removed.
And Anna’s phone—the device that would have shown the monitor disconnecting—had been inside Melissa’s handbag.
The scissors were not meant to injure Ruby.
That mattered.
But what they appeared to be doing was still terrifying.
They were disabling the one device that would immediately tell Anna something had changed with her baby.
Why?
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The answer was inside Melissa’s handbag.
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