Chapter 2 - House of Horrors
Hannah’s voice was steady despite her weakness as she recounted the three days I had been gone in Kansas City.
The moment my car had pulled out of the driveway, Diane and Brittany stopped pretending. They didn't help with the laundry or cook meals. Instead, they took over the master bedroom, turning off the air conditioning to save on my utility bill while leaving Hannah and six-day-old Noah in the sweltering upstairs room.
When Hannah tried to walk downstairs to get water, Brittany blocked the stairs, laughing as she recorded Hannah's agonizingly slow movements on her phone.
"They said I was faking the post-partum pain," Hannah sobbed quietly, squeezing my fingers. "When Noah started crying from hunger on the second night, my milk hadn't fully come in yet because I was so dehydrated. I begged your mother to hand me the formula from the kitchen. She looked at me and said, 'If you can't feed your own child, you don't deserve to have one.'"
My stomach churned. The rage burning inside my chest was so intense I could taste copper in my mouth.
"When I tried to reach for my phone to call you," Hannah continued, "Brittany snatched it from my hands. Your mother grabbed my wrists—hard—and pinned me against the headboard while Brittany locked the phone in her purse. They told me if I made a sound when you called, they would tell CPS I was an unstable mother who tried to hurt the baby."
They had systematically starved my recovering wife and suffocated my newborn son in a hot room, using physical force and emotional blackmail to keep her silent while they enjoyed my house, drank my liquor, and ordered food on my credit cards.
A police officer stepped into the room, holding a notepad. "Mr. Carter? I'm Officer Miller. The medical staff alerted us to a potential elder and infant abuse situation."
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I stood up, wiping the tears from my eyes. The coward who had once urged his wife to "not make a scene" was dead.
"Officer," I said, my voice dead calm. "I want to press full criminal charges against Diane Carter and Brittany Carter. Right now."
