Chapter 6 - ANNA’S FIRST WARNING
Anna had not always distrusted Vanessa.
She admitted that to Richard because she did not want him imagining she recognized danger from the beginning. During the first months Vanessa lived in the mansion, she was polite to staff and affectionate toward Lily when Richard was present.
Then small things changed.
Vanessa began sending Anna out of the nursery during bedtime.
She insisted on handling medication herself.
She complained that Lily cried too much when Richard left the house.
Anna initially attributed the tension to a new relationship adjusting to a child.
The first serious warning came six weeks earlier.
Lily developed a fever.
Anna gave her the medication prescribed by her pediatrician and recorded the dose in the household care log. Vanessa later insisted Anna had administered it incorrectly and told Richard that Lily became ill because the housekeeper was careless.
Richard remembered the argument.
He apologized to Vanessa for Anna’s supposed mistake.
Now Anna showed him the care log.
Her entries matched the prescription.
Vanessa’s later version did not.
The second warning involved Claire’s nursery camera.
Vanessa told Richard it made the living room look cluttered and asked for it to be removed. Richard agreed because he thought it was an ordinary household decision.
Anna stored it rather than discarding it.
“I couldn’t throw away something Mrs. Ashford used for Lily.”
Richard looked at her.
“That probably saved my daughter.”
Anna’s eyes filled.
“I wish I had connected it sooner.”
She then admitted something else.
She contacted Charles after the changing-table incident because she believed Richard might dismiss another complaint from staff.
Charles told her Vanessa was exhausted and that Anna should stop making household disagreements into accusations.
The next day, her work schedule changed.
She was instructed to remain out of the nursery during afternoon care.
The order came from Ashford Family Administration.
Charles’s office.
The consequences of the investigation reached the mansion immediately. Richard placed Vanessa’s belongings under supervised collection, changed security credentials and removed Charles’s access to household systems. Lily remained with Richard and Anna under a temporary protection plan approved by child services while investigators reviewed the incident.
Richard was furious about the scrutiny.
Rebecca reminded him that scrutiny was not punishment.
A fifteen-month-old had nearly been seriously injured.
The authorities needed to establish what happened and whether the remaining home was safe.
Richard agreed to the assessment.
Then Anna brought him something she had kept hidden.
An old handwritten note Claire left in the nursery cabinet.
It contained instructions about Lily’s feeding schedule, preferred blankets and what helped her sleep.
At the bottom Claire wrote:
If anyone tries to make decisions about Lily without Richard understanding them, call Rebecca Sloan directly.
Richard stared at it.
“Why would Claire write that?”
Anna looked uncomfortable.
“She was worried about Charles.”
May you like
The room went silent.
His dead wife had anticipated the very person Richard trusted to manage her estate.
