Sue lies on the carpet in her living room, ear pressed to the floor.
Moaning like a sick, dying animal.
Thrashing against her restraints.
Sue fumbles for her phone…
Ed
I’m standing in line at the store about to pay.
Sue
Did you remember to buy all the other things?
Sue
Paint and a ladder and tools so it doesn’t look suspicious?
Sue
We can’t look suspicious. No one can know what’s going on.
Ed
Let me remind you that you started this.
Ed
You were the one who tied her up and gagged her in the first place.
Sue
She was going to cut our baby out!
Ed
I know. But in the process, you’ve turned this into a kidnapping.
Sue
You’re just as involved in this as I am.
Sue
Besides, I wasn’t the one who sedated her and locked her in the basement today.
Ed
She ate through the duct tape on her wrists and broke out of the bedroom.
Sue
We’re in this together.
Ed
God Almighty! I’m a doctor.
Ed
This goes against everything I believe in and have trained for my entire adult life.
Sue
She’s carrying OUR baby.
Ed
I know. But there’s got to be another way to do this!
Ed
Are we really going to chain her to a bed in the basement until she gives birth?
Sue
We’ve tried everything else.
Sue
Negotiating. Begging. Pleading.
Sue
Greta doesn’t respond like other people do.
Ed
That’s what I’m worried about.
Ed
What’s going to happen when she wakes up now and finds herself tied to a bed in a basement?
Sue
What happens if she doesn’t?
Sue
She tried to slam her belly against a wall today.
Sue
She’s going to kill our baby. Or herself.
Ed
I guess we’re saving the baby, and saving her from herself.
Ed
This doesn’t make us bad people. Does it?
Sue
No! These are extraordinary circumstances.
Ed
You’re right. They are.
Sue
How long is that sedative meant to work for?
Sue
Hurry, she’s waking up, I can hear her moving!!!
Sue climbs up the ladder into the living room.
She slams the trapdoor shut.
It locks with a loud click.
She flops onto her back and stares at the ceiling.
The feel of the soft carpet against her back momentarily relieves some tension.
The pull of the floor makes her want to close her eyes and drift off.
Drift away from all of this.
There’s still too much they need to do…
She sits up and takes it out of her pocket.
Sue
No. She’s still refusing any food.
Sue
She’s trying to kill herself and the baby again.
Sue
What are we going to do?
Ed
We have to do whatever it takes to save Lilly.
Ed
Lilly-Anne. Our daughter.
Sue
Our “adopted” daughter.
Ed
Have you told all your friends we’re on the adoption list?
Sue
Yes. They’re all so excited.
Sue
I told them it’s a closed adoption, so we won’t know who the parents are.
Ed
We need to keep our story straight.
Ed
No one can find out about this.
Sue
I still don’t know what we’re going to do after Greta gives birth.
Sue
What if she goes straight to the police?
Sue
What if she won’t leave?
Sue
What if we have to keep her in our basement forever?
Ed
We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.
Ed
I’m also selling off some of my practice and those stocks.
Ed
By the time Lilly is born, we should have enough money to buy her silence.
Sue
We’re going to have a baby, Ed.
Ed
We have to get her eating, though.
Sue
I’ve tried everything.
Ed
I’ll bring home a feeding tube today.
Ed
Doctors use it on anorexics who won’t eat.
Ed
It goes up the nose and straight into the stomach.
Sue
Do you really think that’s necessary?
Sue
I don’t want to torture her.
Ed
She’s tied to a bed in the basement…
Ed
She’s wearing diapers.
Ed
It will hurt more if she starves herself to death.
The afternoon sun suffuses the house with a warm glow.
Ed loves this time of day.
When he’s not at work, he’s home with Lilly.
Her entry into the world might not have been ideal.
In fact, it was far, far from it.
But every morning, when Ed picks Lilly up out of the cot, he makes a silent promise to her…
I’ll give you the best life possible.
And I’ll make sure you never see Greta again…
A promise he is sure he can keep, until he hears the sounds of breaking glass.
Five minutes later, Ed texts Sue.
Ed
She’s got our baby girl.
Sue
What are you talking about?
Sue
We haven’t seen Greta in months. Not since she took the money and left.
Ed
She just broke into the house and stormed into the nursery.
Ed
She says she wants her baby back.
Sue
LILLY IS NOT HER BABY!!
Sue
She’s our baby. We love her.
Sue
What?! Get Lilly away from her!!!
Sue
Ed, please. Get Lilly.
Ed
She locked me in the basement.
Ed
She threatened to cut Lilly’s throat if I didn’t go into the basement.
Sue
You have to get out of there!
Ed
The locking system we installed only opens from the outside. You know that.
Ed
I can hear her upstairs.
Ed
She’s singing a lullaby to Lilly.
Sue
Ed, we need to call the police.
Sue
We have to. She could kill Lilly.
Ed
We held your twin sister captive in the basement.
Ed
We force-fed her, we sedated her, we tied her down.
Ed
She gave birth in a basement and then we stole her baby.
Sue
The police will take Lilly away from us. Won’t they?
Ed
Yes! We’ll go to jail and our baby will go into foster care.
Sue
We can’t let that happen.
Ed
As soon as you get home, come and open the basement.
Ed
I’m going to talk to her — try and keep her distracted.
Sue
Okay. I’m almost there.
Ed
I have one last vial of sedative in the fridge.
Ed
The needle is there in the medicine cabinet. Get it!
Ed
What’s going on? I hear a scuffle.
Ed
Sue??? Lilly’s crying, are you okay???
Ed
Can’t you hear me calling??
Ed
What was that thump?????
Ed
Thank God. Are you okay?
Sue
I think I just killed her, Ed!
