Sarah adjusted her plain grey suit coat as she stood in the grand entrance of the house.
The white marble floor reflected the bright morning light coming through the tall windows.
She had worked for the Harrison family in Dallas for nearly six months as a nanny.
Every single morning began with the exact same routine of preparing breakfast and checking schedule calendars.
Mark Harrison ran a massive logistics company that kept him busy traveling across the entire state.
His new wife Victoria spent most of her days shopping or planning grand charity galas.
Sarah took care of little Emma, who was barely eleven months old and just starting to pull up.
The baby was the light of Mark's life after his first wife passed away two years prior.
Victoria always acted distant whenever Mark left the estate for early corporate morning meetings.
She rarely held the baby and often complained about the noise inside the spacious house.
Sarah carried a tray of clean baby bottles toward the bottom of the grand staircase.
She heard footsteps tapping softly along the upper balcony floor above the main hallway.
Victoria stood near the railing wearing a beige dress and looking down toward the foyer floor.
She held little Emma near the top edge of the banister in a strange, awkward way.
Sarah stopped in her tracks because the position looked extremely dangerous for a tiny baby.
Victoria seemed distracted by her phone while holding the child near the open drop.
The heavy cloth blanket around Emma began to slip rapidly past Victoria's fingers.
Sarah dropped her tray completely as the metal bottles clattered against the hard floor.
She sprinted across the smooth tiles with all her speed to reach the bottom stairs.
Emma slipped entirely free from Victoria's grasp and tumbled down into the open space.
Sarah threw her entire body forward in a desperate leap across the bright marble floor.
She pulled the small child tightly into her arms just inches above the hard surface.
The impact knocked the air straight out of Sarah's lungs as she slid along floor.
She lay there catching her breath while holding Emma close against her thumping chest.
Tears swept down Sarah's cheeks as she gasped for air and checked the baby over.
Emma started to cry loudly, but the child was completely unharmed by the terrifying event.
Victoria gasped loudly from the top balcony while clutching her own chest in total shock.
Sarah held the trembling baby tight while looking up toward the high balcony railing.