Chapter 10 - They Needed Mariana to Look Unstable
The plan depended on two narratives.
Leo was medically fragile.
I was incapable of managing the crisis.
Beatrice had spent months building the second one.
She encouraged me to complain about exhaustion over text.
She sent tea and sleep aids I never used.
She told relatives I had postpartum anxiety.
She repeatedly offered to take Leo because I “wasn’t coping.”
At the party, the tea mattered.
Investigators later tested what remained in the cup.
It contained a sedating ingredient inconsistent with ordinary tea.
Whether the dose would have significantly impaired me required expert
interpretation.
But I had refused to drink it.
Had I consumed it, the camera might have captured a drowsy mother beside
an unresponsive child.
Dad’s warning had interrupted both narratives.
Beatrice had wanted me inside that suite.
Ryan had wanted Leo there.
May you like
And when I left with my baby under my coat, I carried the one person
their plan required out of frame.
