“But they’re too small to belong to an adult.”
The words didn’t make sense.
“What do you mean?”
He pointed again.
“These marks are from smaller hands.”
My mind struggled to process it.
“Smaller… like a child?”
Dr. Patel nodded slowly.
“Yes.”
My stomach dropped.
“A child did this?”
“That’s what it appears.”
When Daniel and Megan arrived at the hospital thirty minutes later, both looked terrified.
Megan rushed straight to the neonatal room window.
“Oh my God… Noah…”
Daniel turned to me.
“Mom, what happened?”
I showed them the scan.
Daniel frowned.
“That doesn’t make sense,” he said.
“The nanny was alone with him.”
“Are you sure she was alone?” I asked.
Megan hesitated.
Then she said quietly:
“…she brought her daughter once.”
My heart skipped.
“Her daughter?”
“Yes,” Megan said. “A little girl. Maybe four or five years old. She came with her one afternoon because she couldn’t find a babysitter.”
I felt the pieces begin to shift together in my mind.
“Was the girl around Noah?”
Megan nodded slowly.
“She loved babies. She kept asking to hold him.”
“Did she ever hold him?”
Megan shook her head.
