Chapter 5 - The Frame-Up
The attack came faster and hit harder than Elise could have ever anticipated.
It happened on a stormy Tuesday evening. Daniel was in his study, buried beneath depositions and legal paperwork, when a sharp alarm began to blare through the mansion’s intercom system.
It was the high-priority nursery emergency alert.
Daniel bolted from his desk, his heart leaping into his throat. He sprinted up the stairs, taking them three at a time, his boots pounding against the hardwood floor. Panic flared violently in his chest as he threw open the nursery door.
Inside, the room was bathed in red emergency lights. The digital baby monitors were screeching loudly, displaying erratic heart rates for both girls.
Maisie was screaming hysterically, gasping for air, her face turned an unhealthy shade of red. Rosie was writhing in her crib, sobbing wildly.
Elise was on her knees, frantically attempting to soothe Maisie while checking the oxygen monitor, tears streaming down her face.
"What happened?!" Daniel roared, rushing to Rosie's side and pulling the sobbing infant into his arms.
"I don't know!" Elise cried out, her voice frantic. "I went to the kitchen to fetch their night bottles. I was gone for three minutes! When I came back, the monitor dropped offline and they were both choking!"
Daniel’s eyes scanned the room wildly. His gaze locked onto the changing table next to Elise’s personal tote bag.
Sitting right beside the bag was an open, unlabeled prescription bottle of heavy sedatives—pills that Daniel recognized immediately as high-dose sleep aids.
Daniel felt the world stop. Cold terror turned into blinding, incandescent rage.
"What is that?" Daniel demanded, pointing a trembling finger at the bottle. "What is that doing in my daughters' room?!"
Elise looked over, her eyes widening in sheer terror. "I... I don't know! That isn't mine! I swear to God, Mr. Carter, I’ve never seen that before!"
"You left prescription sedatives next to my four-month-old daughters?!" Daniel yelled, his voice echoing off the high ceilings. "They could have swallowed something! They could have died!"
"I didn't bring that in here!" Elise wept, dropping to her knees, holding her hands out pleadingly. "Please, Mr. Carter! Look at the bottle! The seal is broken, but the pills are intact! Look at the milk bottles—they haven't been drunk yet! I would never hurt them! You know I wouldn't!"
Daniel stood there, his chest heaving, holding his crying child while looking down at the weeping woman on the floor. Everything in his instinct screamed to kick her out of the house, to tear her apart for endangering his precious babies.
But as he looked closely at the pill bottle, something caught his sharp eye.
The brand on the bottle bore a specific pharmaceutical logo—a luxury private clinic downtown.
It was the exact same clinic where Eleanor Vance had her personal prescriptions filled.
Daniel took a deep, shaky breath, forced his pounding heart to slow down, and looked at Elise’s bag. The side zipper was unlatched, and a small strip of fabric was caught in the teeth—as if someone had hastily shoved something inside.
"Harrison!" Daniel called out loudly into the hallway.
The head butler appeared instantly, looking panicked. "Yes, sir?"
"Lock down all exits immediately," Daniel commanded, his voice deadly calm. "Call security. Pull the digital access logs for the service stairs over the last fifteen minutes, and bring up the secondary CCTV feed from the hallway."
May you like
Elise looked up from the floor, wiping her eyes, stunned. "You... you believe me?"
Daniel looked down at her, his eyes cold as ice, but not aimed at her. "Someone just tried to murder my children’s peace to frame you. And I am going to tear them apart."
