Chương 5
Across the emergency department, a vending machine hummed beside two empty chairs.
Someone had abandoned a paper cup on the floor beneath it.
A television mounted near the ceiling played a cooking competition with the sound turned off.
Clara watched a woman on the screen carry a cake toward judges who seemed furious about frosting.
The normality of it irritated her.
“How bad is the ankle?”
“Probably a sprain.”
“Probably?”
“X-ray first.”
“I need to see Emma.”
The nurse loosened the cuff.
“You need to be able to stand before you start rescuing anybody else.”
Clara looked at her.
The woman raised both eyebrows.
“That wasn’t criticism.”
“It sounded like criticism.”
“It was medical sarcasm.”
Clara did smile then, briefly.
It hurt somewhere unexpected.
A few minutes later, Adrian appeared at the opening of the treatment bay.
He had Emma’s pale pink blanket folded over one arm.
There was dried spit-up on his navy shirt.
Clara’s body tightened before she could stop it.
Adrian noticed.
He stayed outside the curtain.
“She’s stable.”
Clara closed her eyes.
The breath that left her chest came out almost as a sob, and she hated that he heard it.
“What does stable mean?”
“They’re keeping her for observation.”
“Scans?”
“They did imaging.”
“And?”
“So far, nothing serious.”
“So far.”
He nodded.
“So far.”
Clara pressed her palms against the mattress and winced when the abrasions caught against the paper sheet.
Adrian looked at her hands.
“I should have believed you.”
Clara stared at the television beyond him.
The cake had collapsed.
“I don’t want to do this right now.”
“I know.”
“Then don’t.”
He swallowed.
“Okay.”
He did not leave.
Clara turned her head.
“Why are you still standing there?”
“Because Olivia asked for you.”
That moved through Clara differently.
“Where is she?”
“With Marisol.”
“At the house?”
“No.”
Adrian rubbed his jaw.
“They brought her here.”
“Why?”
“She wouldn’t stay there after Vanessa was taken in.”
Clara looked at him sharply.
“Taken in?”
“The officers brought her to the station.”
“Arrested?”
“I don’t know.”
“You don’t know if your wife was arrested?”
Adrian’s face tightened.
“I left with Emma.”
Clara looked away.
That was fair.
She disliked that it was fair.
“Olivia said something else.”
Adrian’s voice changed.
Clara immediately looked back.
“What?”
“She told Ruiz there were times Vanessa left Emma alone.”
Clara felt her stomach drop.
“How many?”
“She wouldn’t tell me.”
“Why not?”
“She won’t talk to me.”
That surprised Clara less than it seemed to surprise him.
Adrian noticed her silence.
“You think that’s my fault.”
“I think she watched you choose the easiest explanation downstairs.”
His face flushed.
“I walked in on my baby at the bottom of the staircase.”
“And you saw the maid on the floor beside her.”
“I saw you touching the stroller.”
“I was holding it still.”
“I know that now.”
“That’s the point.”
Adrian looked down.
Clara’s anger had arrived hot and clean, but it began to fray almost immediately.
She was too tired to sustain it.
She rubbed the edge of the hospital sheet between two fingers.
“I understand why you were scared.”
“That doesn’t make what I did right.”
“No.”
“I told you to stay away from Emma.”
Clara said nothing.
Adrian’s eyes moved to the torn knee of her uniform.
“You ran after her.”
“Anyone would have.”
“No.”
The answer came too quickly.
Clara looked up.
Adrian stared past her.
“No,” he repeated.
“Apparently not anyone.”
For a moment neither of them spoke.
A cart squeaked down the corridor.
Someone laughed near the nurses’ station.
Clara hated the laugh until she realized it belonged to an elderly man trying to persuade an orderly that he had escaped worse hospitals in Korea.
She let the sound become harmless again.
“Where is Olivia?”
“Family waiting room.”
“I’ll see her after the X-ray.”
“She wants to come here.”
“Then bring her.”
Adrian hesitated.
Clara saw it.
“What?”
“She asked me not to come with her.”
That landed quietly.
Clara looked at him for a long moment.
“She’s afraid of you?”
“I don’t think so.”
“You don’t know?”
His jaw moved.
“I don’t know much right now.”
Clara believed him.
That frightened her more than if he had been defensive.
Adrian stepped away from the curtain.
“I’ll get Marisol.”
“Adrian.”
He stopped.
“Don’t make Olivia tell you everything tonight.”
His shoulders stiffened.
“She knows something about Vanessa.”
“She’s nine.”
“If Vanessa hurt Emma before—”
“She’s nine.”
He closed his mouth.
Clara continued.
“She just watched police take her mother away.”
“I need to know what happened.”
“So do they.”
“I’m her father.”
“Then be her father.”
The sentence stayed between them.
Adrian did not argue.
He nodded once and left.
The X-ray showed no fracture.
The doctor called it a severe sprain, cleaned Clara’s palms, and recommended that someone monitor the swelling in her right wrist overnight.
Clara nodded at everything while hearing only fragments.
Rest.
Ice.
Elevate.
Come back if numbness developed.
When the doctor finally left, Clara studied the temporary brace around her ankle and wondered how she was supposed to work tomorrow.
The thought was so absurd that she laughed.
A nurse passing the bay looked inside.
“You all right?”
“No.”
The nurse considered this.
“Better answer.”
Clara laughed again, then covered her mouth.
Her eyes filled.
She turned toward the wall.
By the time Olivia appeared, Clara had wiped her face with the corner of a tissue until her skin felt raw.
The girl stood behind Marisol.
She had found her second sneaker.
Clara noticed that immediately.
Both shoes were tied now, but one lace was longer than the other.
“Hi.”
Olivia looked at the brace.
“Did you break it?”
“No.”
“Does it hurt?”
“Yes.”
Olivia nodded solemnly.
“Mine hurt once when I jumped off the pool wall.”
Marisol glanced at her.
“You were told not to jump off that wall.”
“I know.”
Clara shifted on the bed.
“Did telling you help?”
“No.”
“That sounds right.”
May you like
Olivia smiled faintly.
Then she looked at Clara’s hands.
