Chapter 2 – The Truth Buried Upstairs
My scream shattered every conversation downstairs.
"Lily!"
I pressed two trembling fingers against her tiny neck again, praying I had been wrong.
Nothing.
No pulse.
"No... no, baby, please..." I whispered, desperately rubbing her chest.
Then, barely noticeable...
A weak gasp.
She was still alive.
I grabbed her and ran downstairs, holding her limp body against my chest.
"CALL 911!" I screamed. "SHE CAN'T BREATHE!"
The music stopped.
Guests froze.
Instead of helping, Brooke slowly set down her wineglass.
"Stop overreacting," she said with an irritated sigh. "She'll wake up."
"You poisoned my daughter!"
"It was only Benadryl."
I looked at the nearly empty bottle sitting on the kitchen counter.
It wasn't children's medicine.
It was adult nighttime allergy medication.
Half the bottle was gone.
Margaret crossed her arms.
"If you hadn't spoiled that child so much, she wouldn't have cried through Hazel's birthday."
I couldn't believe what I was hearing.
"My daughter is dying!"
"And you're embarrassing this family."
I reached for my phone.
"I'm calling an ambulance."
Brooke suddenly lunged forward.
"No, you're not!"
She slapped the phone from my hand, sending it skidding across the hardwood floor.
"What are you doing?" one guest shouted.
Before anyone could react, Brooke grabbed a nearly full wine bottle from the table.
"Stop making everything about you!"
CRACK!
The bottle exploded against the side of my head.
Glass rained across the floor.
A sharp pain ripped through my skull.
Warm blood poured down my face.
I collapsed to one knee but never let go of Lily.
The room erupted into screams.
"Oh my God!"
"She hit her!"
"Call the police!"
Margaret pointed at me instead.
"Look what you've done! You ruined Hazel's birthday!"
The words barely registered.
Everything around me echoed.
My vision blurred.
One thought kept repeating in my mind.
Save Lily.
A teenage boy named Ethan—the neighbor's sixteen-year-old son—snatched his phone from his pocket.
"They're insane," he whispered.
He dialed 911.
Quietly.
Without anyone noticing.
May you like
And he kept recording everything.
None of us realized that his video would soon destroy Brooke's entire life.
