My son-in-law and his mistress left my daughter and her three-week-old baby locked inside a scorching car and when I smashed the window to save them, my daughter whispered, "Tyler and Vanessa..." before collapsing. They thought the heat would erase the truth. They did not know my late husband’s security system was still recording. I had just returned from the pharmacy when I saw the car parked crookedly in my driveway. The engine was off. Every window was sealed beneath the afternoon sun. …

She described the taste of the drink, the weight in her limbs, Vanessa’s silence, Tyler’s refusal to help, and Evelyn’s hand holding the key fob outside the glass.

When the prosecutor asked why she had not unlocked the door herself, Rachel explained that the vehicle had been double-locked and that the sedative made it difficult even to lift her arm.

She remembered trying to stay conscious because Lily’s cries were becoming weaker.

“I thought,” Rachel said, “that if I stopped looking at her, she would

stop breathing.”

No one moved.

Evelyn did not look at her.

The defense suggested Rachel had exaggerated her symptoms because she wanted revenge for Tyler’s affair.