Chapter 2: The Perfect Wife Begins to Fall
Chapter 2: The Perfect Wife Begins to Fall
Hospital security locked down the floor.
Police officers arrived within minutes.
Marissa insisted it was all a misunderstanding.
"I've never seen that container before."
Detective Sarah Mitchell wasn't convinced.
"Then how did it end up inside a sealed cast?"
Marissa folded her hands.
"Maybe someone at the hospital—"
"The cast was applied three days ago," Evelyn interrupted.
"No tampering marks existed on the outside."
Sarah nodded.
"So whoever placed it inside did so before the cast completely hardened."
Daniel slowly remembered that afternoon.
The doctor had briefly stepped out to answer an emergency page.
For nearly four minutes...
Marissa had been alone with Noah.
His stomach turned.
"No..."
He looked at Noah.
His son had been trying to tell him the truth since the first night.
And he hadn't listened.
Tears filled Daniel's eyes.
"I'm so sorry, buddy."
Noah didn't answer.
He simply reached for Evelyn's hand.
That hurt Daniel more than any accusation could.
Meanwhile, forensic technicians searched the Vale mansion.
At first they found nothing.
Then one investigator opened a locked cabinet in Marissa's private office.
Inside sat several clear plastic breeding containers.
Each contained insects.
Cockroaches.
Crickets.
Beetles.
Each box had tiny air holes drilled into the lid.
One container was missing.
Exactly the same size as the capsule recovered from Noah's cast.
But the most disturbing discovery came from Marissa's laptop.
Hidden inside encrypted folders were pages from what looked like a journal.
The entries weren't emotional.
They were clinical.
"Fear increases dependency."
"Pain without visible injury creates confusion."
"Children become easier to control once adults stop believing them."
Daniel could barely breathe while reading them.
This hadn't been anger.
It had been an experiment.
Every act of cruelty had been planned.
When officers returned downstairs...
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Marissa was gone.
She had escaped through an employee exit.
