Chapter 4

My own family. They were my last hope.

My mother, Linda, a head nurse. Pragmatic, strong.

My younger brother, Kevin, a law student. Protective, smart.

They lived three states away, but I managed to get a letter out, a desperate, scribbled plea smuggled with a neighbor' s mail.

I told them everything. The babies, Michael' s cruelty, the photo, the way everyone turned.

They arrived a week later, two local sheriff's deputies with them.

Linda hugged me, tears in her eyes. "Oh, Sarah, we'll sort this out."

Kevin looked at Michael with pure hatred. "You're a monster."

The deputies looked grim. "Mr. Smith, we have some serious allegations here. Murder. Unlawful imprisonment."

I felt a surge of hope, so powerful it made me dizzy.

It was finally over.

Then Michael spoke, his voice calm, steady.

"Deputies, Mom, Kevin. Before you do anything, please. Just look at this."

He held out his phone. The same photo.

Linda leaned in. Kevin peered over her shoulder.

I watched their faces, my heart pounding.

I saw the shock. Then the confusion. Then... that same dawning, awful understanding I' d seen on John and Mary' s faces.

Linda stepped back, pale. She looked at me, her eyes filled with a new, terrible emotion. Not pity, something colder.

Kevin' s jaw tightened. He wouldn't meet my gaze.

Linda turned to the deputies. "I... I'm so sorry to have wasted your time, officers. My daughter... she' s suffering from extreme postpartum depression. She's been through so much. She' s imagined all these... these deaths."

Kevin nodded, his voice wooden. "She's not well. She needs help, not... not this."

The deputies looked from them to me, my desperate, tear-streaked face.

They clearly believed my mother, the head nurse, and my brother, the law student.

They left, muttering apologies for the "misunderstanding."

When they were gone, Linda and Kevin faced me.

"Sarah," Linda said, her voice devoid of its earlier warmth. "Michael is doing what's necessary."

Kevin finally looked at me, his eyes hard. "You need to stop fighting this, Sarah. For everyone's sake."

Betrayed.

By my own mother. My own brother.

The last doors of hope slammed shut in my face.

Michael seemed to know everything I would try, everyone I would turn to.

He was always one step ahead, the photo his silent, all-powerful weapon.

I was trapped. Completely and utterly trapped.