Chapter 7 - The Staircase
It happened too fast for anyone to stop cleanly.
Stella lunged toward Ivy.
Not with a weapon.
With panic.
She grabbed the box containing Samuel’s papers.
Ivy held on.
Daniel shouted:
“Mom!”
Diane screamed:
“Give it to her!”
Ivy pulled back.
Stella shoved.
Ivy stumbled.
Her heel caught the top stair.
For one second, she balanced.
Then another hand touched her back.
Ivy fell.
Her head struck the railing.
Then the marble below.
Darkness.
When Daniel reached her, blood was spreading beneath her hair.
He looked upward.
Stella stood frozen.
Diane was crying.
“What did you do?!”
Stella immediately changed.
“She attacked me.”
Daniel stared.
“What?”
“She attacked me! I defended myself!”
Diane looked at her mother.
Even she seemed shocked.
Stella grabbed her arm.
“You saw it.”
Diane’s lips parted.
“Mom—”
“You saw her attack me.”
Daniel knelt beside Ivy.
“Call 911!”
No response.
He pulled out his phone himself.
As paramedics arrived, Stella repeated the story.
Ivy became violent.
Ivy attacked.
Ivy slipped.
Self-defense.
Diane slowly began agreeing.
Daniel did not.
He had seen Stella grab the box.
He had seen the shove.
But he had not clearly seen the second hand.
And that detail mattered.
Was it Stella?
Diane?
An accident?
At the hospital, doctors diagnosed a traumatic brain injury.
Ivy underwent surgery.
Then she stopped waking up.
Day one.
Day two.
Day three.
Daniel stayed beside her.
Stella arrived with attorneys.
“She is dangerous.”
Daniel stared at his mother.
“She is unconscious.”
“She attacked me.”
“No.”
“You were emotional.”
“No.”
Stella’s eyes hardened.
“Daniel, this woman has been collecting documents about our family.”
“She had a reason.”
“You don’t know what you’re defending.”
“Neither do you.”
Police opened an investigation.
Stella gave a formal statement.
Diane confirmed it.
Then something unexpected happened.
A detective named Aaron Pike visited the hospital.
He asked Daniel:
“Was there a camera in the upstairs hallway?”
Daniel frowned.
“Security camera?”
“Yes.”
“My mother had them disabled years ago.”
Pike looked at him.
“Someone reactivated one three weeks ago.”
Daniel knew who.
Ivy.
The detective placed a tablet beside the hospital bed.
“We recovered the footage.”
Stella, standing near the door, froze.
Diane stopped breathing.
Daniel whispered:
“What does it show?”
Pike looked directly at Stella.
May you like
“Everything.”
Then Ivy’s fingers moved.
