The Nanny Smashed the Bottle to Save Him
CHAPTER 1 - The Broken Bottle
Marta raised the bottle and smashed it against the nursery floor.
Glass shattered. Milk spread across the polished wood.
Isabel rushed into her son's room.
"Have you lost your mind?"
Without waiting for an explanation, she slapped Marta across the face.
The nanny fell and covered her swelling cheek. She was fifty-two and had cared for Noah since his birth. Isabel had never seen her behave violently.
"I wasn't trying to hurt him," Marta cried. "I was protecting him!"
She pointed at the spilled milk.
Before their eyes, the liquid slowly developed a faint green tint.
Natalia, Isabel's younger sister, appeared in the doorway. Her elegant green dress matched the luxurious house, but not the fear crossing her face.
Isabel turned toward her.
"Did you put something in the milk?"
"Of course not!"
Marta struggled to stand.
"I saw her enter with a small bottle. After she left, the milk smelled different."
Natalia forced a nervous laugh.
"Are you going to believe an employee instead of your own sister?"
Isabel stared at the hand she had used to strike Marta. She might have just assaulted the woman who saved her son.
She called Noah's pediatrician and ordered everyone to stay away from the broken bottle.
Noah was sleeping in his crib. He had been unusually weak for several days, but Natalia insisted that it was normal after his recent infection.
Marta found a small medicine container beneath the changing table.
The label carried Isabel's name.
It was a sedative prescribed after her husband's death.
Isabel had stopped taking it months earlier.
Natalia stepped backward.
"You probably put it in the milk and forgot."
The accusation struck Isabel harder than the truth.
Her sister did not seem surprised by the medicine.
She seemed prepared to use it against her.
Then the house phone rang.
It was the family attorney.
Natalia had filed for emergency guardianship of Noah that very morning.
Before the bottle shattered, her sister had already planned to take her child.
