Chương 5
“Fair.”
“Can they hear me?”
“Yes.”
Sophie pressed her hand gently against the plastic near Baby Girl.
The newborn’s face seemed almost too small to contain features. A pink cap covered most of her head. One hand rested beside her cheek.
Sophie whispered, “I got you there.”
Claire stood behind her.
The girl did not say it proudly.
She said it as if confirming a completed chore.
Baby Boy stretched his feet beneath the pale-blue blanket.
Sophie looked through the neighboring isolette.
“See?”
Claire smiled.
“He does hate blankets.”
“I told you.”
“You did.”
For ten minutes they talked about nothing important.
Sophie asked why hospital socks had rubber shapes underneath. Claire told her she had never understood why the shapes were usually diamonds. Sophie said stars would be better.
Claire agreed.
Then Sophie asked, “Did Mommy lose all her blood?”
Claire’s smile disappeared.
“No.”
“How much?”
“A lot.”
“Can you put more in?”
“Yes.”
“Whose?”
“People donate it.”
“Like giving it away?”
“Exactly.”
“Do they get it back?”
“Their bodies make more.”
Sophie thought about that.
“That’s gross.”
“A little.”
“Can kids give blood?”
“Not your age.”
“Good.”
Claire laughed.
Sophie did too.
Then she started crying so suddenly that Claire did not realize what was happening until the child covered her face.
“I left her.”
Claire lowered herself beside her.
“You went for help.”
“I left her.”
“You brought the babies here.”
“What if she dies because I left?”
Claire waited until Sophie looked at her.
“If you had stayed, who would have known where she was?”
Sophie’s face crumpled.
Claire did not add anything.
No speech.
No promise.
She simply stayed beside her until the crying slowed.
Late that afternoon, Daniel learned why Emily had the hospital bracelet.
Three days earlier she had come to the emergency department with dizziness, high blood pressure, and contractions.
She was thirty-five weeks pregnant with twins.
She had been advised to remain for observation.
Instead, she had left against medical advice.
Daniel read the note twice.
A nurse had documented that Emily became anxious after receiving several calls. She had insisted she needed to return home to her daughter.
A second note said a man had been seen waiting near the elevators but had left before staff could identify him.
The patient declined to discuss domestic safety.
Daniel sat at the physician workstation staring at the screen.
Claire set a coffee beside him.
“You’re doing the thing again.”
“This is relevant.”
“I know.”
“She left.”
“Yes.”
“She knew she was high risk.”
“Yes.”
“She had premature twins at home three days later.”
“Apparently.”
“She had a seven-year-old there.”
Claire pulled out a chair.
“Say what you’re thinking.”
He did not.
“Daniel.”
“She endangered them.”
Claire took a slow drink of coffee.
“Maybe.”
He turned toward her.
“You disagree?”
“I think we know what she did. We don’t know why.”
“She declined observation.”
“She also declined to discuss domestic safety after a man was seen near the elevators.”
“You think Mark threatened her?”
“I think I don’t know.”
Daniel looked back at the chart.
Claire said, “You’re angry at the mother.”
“I’m angry at everybody.”
“That’s more believable.”
“I have a child sitting thirty feet away who pushed newborn twins in a construction wheelbarrow because the adults in her life failed so completely she became the emergency plan.”
Claire looked at him for several seconds.
Then she said quietly, “That part is true.”
His phone vibrated.
It was the trauma surgeon.
Emily had survived the operation.
Daniel went to Sophie.
She was sitting cross-legged on the exam bed watching a cartoon without sound. Nora Patel sat near the wall answering email.
Sophie looked up when he entered.
She still had not forgiven him.
He could tell.
“Your mom is out of surgery.”
She stared.
“She’s alive.”
The remote fell from her hand.
“When can I see her?”
“She’s asleep. They’re going to watch her very closely tonight.”
“When will she wake up?”
“We don’t know yet.”
Sophie’s lips tightened.
“But the surgery is done?”
“Yes.”
“And she’s alive?”
“Yes.”
Sophie picked up the remote.
“Okay.”
Daniel waited.
She did not react further.
Nora watched quietly.
Daniel stepped toward the door.
“Dr. Carter?”
He turned.
Sophie kept looking at the television.
“Did you think she was going to die?”
There was no useful lie.
“Yes.”
Sophie nodded once.
“Me too.”
That was all.
Daniel left.
Mark remained at the hospital longer than Daniel expected.
Police questioned him for almost three hours. They photographed his shoes, clothing, and hands. Eventually they placed him in handcuffs.
Sophie did not see it.
Nora made sure of that.
Daniel did.
Mark was being escorted through a side corridor when he noticed him.
“Doctor.”
Daniel stopped.
The officer beside Mark said, “Keep moving.”
“Thirty seconds.”
“No.”
Mark looked at Daniel anyway.
“I didn’t hurt Emily.”
Daniel said nothing.
“She called me.”
The officers tried to continue walking.
Mark resisted only enough to keep facing Daniel.
“She called me eleven times. Ask them. Ask the cops.”
Daniel folded his arms.
“I’m not the police.”
“She wanted me there.”
“That doesn’t explain the wheelbarrow.”
“I saw my kids in a goddamn construction cart and lost my mind.”
“Those twins aren’t your children.”
Mark flinched.
There it was.
Something Daniel had not expected.
Mark glanced away.
“I know.”
“You called them your kids.”
“Sophie is mine.”
The officer tugged him forward.
Mark’s voice dropped.
“Ask Emily why she called me.”
They took him away.
Daniel stood in the corridor longer than he needed to.
That night Sophie slept in a family room near the pediatric unit because no relative had yet been approved to take her.
Nora contacted Emily’s older sister, Rachel, who lived two hours away.
Rachel answered the phone on the fourth try.
When Nora explained what had happened, the woman swore for nearly a full minute.
Then she began crying.
Then she apologized for swearing.
May you like
Then she asked whether the babies had names.
When Nora said no, Rachel started crying again.
