Chương 5
“Twenty minutes after Daniel came downstairs this morning.”
The shaking stopped.
Elias’s face became unreadable.
Officer Reyes extended her hand.
“Show me.”
Marcus gave her the phone.
She studied whatever message appeared there, then looked up.
“Who controls the building system?”
I already knew.
The answer had been hanging at the edge of my mind since Marcus first asked what Daniel did for his uncle.
“His family owns the building,” I said.
No one spoke.
I looked toward the elevator where Daniel had disappeared.
For three years, every locked door in my life had belonged to him.
Now he was trying to erase what happened behind them.
And for the first time, I was not trapped inside with him.
The first thing Officer Reyes did was ask Marcus not to touch anything else.
“The message, the building system, whoever you contacted, all of it stays exactly where it is.”
Marcus nodded.
“I only asked whether the cameras covered the fourth-floor hallway.”
“And somebody answered by deleting footage?”
“They answered that the footage was unavailable.”
Reyes looked at him.
“Unavailable and deleted are not the same thing.”
Marcus tilted his phone toward her again.
“The building’s administrator originally said it had been retained.”
That changed her expression.
“Send me the full exchange.”
Elias glanced toward me.
“You should lie down.”
“I’m already sitting.”
“You know what I mean.”
I did.
I also hated that my body had become a separate problem everyone could discuss while I was still inside it.
The nurse touched my shoulder.
“Five minutes.”
“I’m not a child.”
“No, children are easier.”
I looked at her.
She did not smile.
Then she added, “They complain more honestly.”
Against my will, I almost laughed.
The sound hurt my abdomen.
The nurse took that as victory and helped me back against the pillows.
Officer Reyes moved into the hall with Marcus and one of the uniformed officers.
Elias stayed.
For several seconds neither of us spoke.
The city beyond the windows had brightened.
Delivery trucks clogged the avenues below.
People were going to work.
Someone somewhere was arguing over coffee.
For most of my marriage I had envied ordinary problems.
A late train.
A broken dishwasher.
A rude boss.
Anything small enough to complain about without fearing consequences.
“Does he always do that?” I asked.
Elias followed my gaze toward the hallway.
“Who?”
“Marcus.”
“Do what?”
“Look like everyone in the room has disappointed him personally.”
Elias sat in the chair Officer Reyes had used.
“That is his relaxed face.”
I laughed once.
It startled both of us.
Then my stitches pulled and I pressed a hand against my stomach.
“Don’t make me laugh.”
“I didn’t.”
“You did accidentally.”
“I’ll apologize to Marcus.”
“Don’t.”
For a few seconds, the room was almost normal.
Then my phone rang.
I did not have a phone.
The sound came from the small table near the window.
Elias looked at it.
“That’s yours.”
My pulse accelerated.
“I don’t own that.”
“You did.”
He picked it up but did not hand it to me.
“It was in the coat you were wearing.”
I stared at the device.
The screen was cracked near one corner.
Daniel had bought it for me two years ago, then paid the bill from an account I could not access.
He checked it whenever he wanted.
Eventually I stopped thinking of it as mine.
“Who’s calling?”
Elias turned the screen toward me.
Unknown number.
“Answer it.”
He looked uncertain.
“Speaker.”
“Ava.”
“If it’s him, I want Reyes to hear.”
That made the decision for him.
He walked to the door and called Officer Reyes back.
The phone stopped ringing before she entered.
Then it started again.
Reyes looked at me.
“Do you consent to me being present?”
“Yes.”
“To Mr. Vance being present?”
I hesitated.
Elias noticed.
“I can leave.”
“No.”
The answer came too quickly.
I hated that too.
Reyes nodded toward the phone.
“Answer normally.”
My thumb shook when I touched the screen.
“Hello?”
For a moment, there was only breathing.
Then a woman whispered, “Ava?”
I knew the voice.
My entire body went cold.
“Marianne?”
The midwife began crying.
Not loudly.
A wet, exhausted sound she kept trying to swallow.
“I’m sorry.”
Officer Reyes moved closer.
I held up a hand without knowing why.
“Where are you?”
“I can’t tell you.”
“Are you safe?”
A pause.
“I don’t know.”
Reyes took out her tablet.
Marianne inhaled sharply through her nose.
“Daniel came to my apartment yesterday.”
I looked at Reyes.
“What did he want?”
“He wanted me to sign something.”
“What?”
“A statement.”
Her voice dropped even further.
“That you became violent after the delivery.”
I felt as though the bed had tipped beneath me.
“I wasn’t violent.”
“I know.”
“Then why would he ask you to say that?”
“I think you know.”
No one in the room moved.
I could hear traffic through the glass.
A horn.
A siren several blocks away.
Then Marianne said, “He offered me money.”
“How much?”
“Twenty thousand.”
My throat tightened.
“Did you take it?”
Another pause.
“Yes.”
Elias looked toward the floor.
Officer Reyes’s face stayed neutral.
I closed my eyes.
Of course she had.
People liked to imagine betrayal arrived with dramatic music.
Sometimes it arrived as a number large enough to cover rent.
“Why are you calling me?”
“Because he changed the statement after I signed.”
I opened my eyes.
“What did it say when you signed it?”
“That you were distressed, disoriented, and refused medical care.”
“I didn’t refuse.”
“I know.”
“You told him I did anyway.”
“I was scared.”
“So you lied.”
“Yes.”
The honesty made me angrier.
“What did he add?”
Marianne breathed unevenly.
“That you tried to harm one of the babies.”
My fingers went numb around the phone.
Officer Reyes looked directly at me.
I could not speak.
Marianne continued.
“He added that I believed you were experiencing postpartum psychosis.”
The nurse beside the crib swore.
I found my voice.
May you like
“You said that?”
“No.”
