The Dog's Collar Camera Caught Her Red-Handed—Now the Stepmother's Secret Is Out — Part 2 of 3

The Call That Changed Everything

Three days later, Marcus was still replaying the footage in his mind.

The way Vanessa had squeezed those drops, the cold calculation in her eyes, the way she'd smiled at the bottle—it was a nightmare he couldn't wake from.

He sat in the study, Scout at his feet, Ethan asleep upstairs. The baby, Lily, was finally resting, her tiny chest rising and falling in peaceful rhythm.

His phone buzzed. An unknown number.

"Mr. Hartwell?" The voice was clipped, official. "This is Detective Alvarez from the county police. We need you to come down to the station. Your wife—Vanessa—she's asking to speak with you."

Marcus's grip tightened on the phone. "Why?"

"She says she has information. About your late wife, Emily."

The world tilted.

Emily had died in a car accident two years ago. A tragic, senseless accident. The police ruled it as driver error, a patch of ice on the mountain road.

But now, Vanessa—the woman who had tried to poison his infant daughter—wanted to talk about Emily.

Marcus drove to the station in a daze. Scout sat in the passenger seat, his head resting on Marcus's arm, as if he knew something was wrong.

In the interrogation room, Vanessa sat handcuffed to the table, her hair stringy, her eyes hollow. She didn't look like the glamorous woman who had charmed him at the charity gala. She looked like a ghost.

"Marcus," she whispered. "I need to tell you the truth."

"You're going to tell me about Emily?" His voice was steel.

Vanessa nodded, tears spilling down her cheeks. "I was there. That night. On the mountain road."

Marcus's blood turned to ice.

"I didn't mean for it to happen," she sobbed. "I was following her. I wanted to talk to her about—about us. But she saw me, she panicked, and she swerved. I didn't touch her car. I swear."

"You followed her." Marcus's voice was barely a whisper.

"I thought if I could convince her to leave you, to let me have you and the kids—" Vanessa choked on the words.

"So you've been trying to kill my family ever since." Marcus stood, his chair scraping against the floor. "You killed Emily. You tried to poison Lily. And now you want my forgiveness?"

Vanessa shook her head violently. "No, Marcus. I want to protect you. There's more. Someone else—someone who wanted Emily dead. They hired me. They gave me the sedative. They've been watching you, Marcus. They're still out there."

Marcus froze. "Who?"

Vanessa opened her mouth, but a loud bang from the hallway made her flinch.

The door burst open. A uniformed officer stumbled in, blood streaming from his nose.

"She's gone!" he shouted. "The other prisoner—she's escaped!"

Marcus spun around. Through the observation window, he saw a figure in a hooded jacket sprinting down the corridor, vanishing into the stairwell.

Scout began to bark, a deep, urgent sound that echoed through the station.

Marcus's phone buzzed. A text from an unknown number:

"You should have let me take the baby. Now I'll take everything."

He looked at Scout, whose ears were pinned back, his body tense.

"We need to go. Now."