Chương 6
“Your signature is on it.”
“I know.”
“Then you said it.”
“No, Ava, please.”
“You took his money.”
“Yes.”
“You signed his paper.”
“Yes.”
“And now you’re calling because what, your conscience woke up?”
Marianne went silent.
I could hear her crying.
For three years I had learned to be quiet whenever someone stronger was upset.
I did not do it now.
“What do you want from me?”
“I want to fix it.”
“You can’t.”
“I have the original.”
Reyes straightened.
“What?”
I forgot the call was on speaker.
Marianne heard the unfamiliar voice.
“Who is that?”
“Police,” I said.
The line went silent.
Then I heard movement.
A door perhaps.
Keys.
“Marianne?”
“I have to go.”
Officer Reyes stepped toward the phone.
“Marianne, my name is Officer Elena Reyes with the NYPD.”
“I can’t talk to police.”
“You already are.”
“I didn’t agree to that.”
“No one is forcing you to stay on the call.”
Reyes kept her voice calm.
“But if you have an original document that was altered after your signature, we need to preserve it.”
“I can’t.”
“Why?”
“He said if I caused trouble, I’d lose my license.”
The nurse looked sharply at me.
Reyes said, “Is Daniel Miller in a position to control your license?”
“No.”
“Then who is?”
Marianne did not answer.
Officer Reyes tried again.
“Who told you that?”
“His uncle.”
The words changed something in the room.
Marcus appeared in the doorway as if summoned by the name.
“What’s the uncle’s name?” Reyes asked.
Marianne whispered, “Leonard Miller.”
Marcus looked at Elias.
Elias’s expression hardened.
I noticed.
“What?”
Nobody answered me.
I turned to Elias.
“What do you know?”
He did not pretend.
“Leonard Miller sits on the board of a private health network.”
The nurse beside me frowned.
“Which one?”
“Northbridge.”
Her face went pale.
I looked between them.
“What does that mean?”
She answered before Elias could.
“It means they contract with a lot of independent maternity services.”
Marianne made a small broken sound through the phone.
“I told you.”
Reyes lifted a hand.
“Marianne, listen carefully.”
“No.”
“Do not destroy the original.”
“I won’t.”
“Do not give it to Daniel or Leonard.”
“I won’t.”
“Can you photograph it and send it to Ava right now?”
Marianne hesitated.
“I think so.”
“Do that first.”
The call ended.
I stared at the phone.
No one spoke for several seconds.
Then a message arrived.
An image.
My stomach turned before I even opened it.
The document was photographed on what looked like a kitchen counter.
Marianne’s signature appeared at the bottom.
Above it were six short paragraphs.
The language was clinical enough to sound official.
I saw the words disoriented, agitated, refused transport.
Then I saw something else.
A handwritten note in the margin.
Original copy.
No infant harm observed.
Patient requested hospital transfer at 11:42 p.m.
I stared at the line.
My voice came out hoarse.
“She wrote that I asked for a hospital.”
Officer Reyes leaned closer.
“Yes.”
“I told Daniel I needed one.”
The memory came back whole.
Not blood.
Not shouting.
A small thing.
The kitchen clock.
11:42.
I had looked at it because the numbers repeated.
I had been lying on a folded blanket on the living room floor.
Grace was crying.
Lily had not cried yet.
I told Marianne something felt wrong.
I asked her to call an ambulance.
Daniel had stood between her and the door.
“You’re remembering something?” Reyes asked.
I nodded.
“Marianne said she wanted to transfer me.”
“Did she?”
“She started packing.”
My mouth went dry.
“Daniel took her phone.”
The room sharpened.
Officer Reyes began typing.
“What happened next?”
“He told her if she made the call, nobody in his family would use her again.”
I pressed my fingertips to my forehead.
“She argued with him.”
“What did she say?”
“I don’t know.”
“Try.”
“I can’t.”
“Ava.”
“I said I can’t.”
Reyes stopped.
The silence embarrassed me.
“I’m sorry.”
“You don’t need to be.”
“I keep saying that.”
“Yes.”
She almost smiled.
I looked at the photograph again.
There was a timestamp in the corner.
Marianne had taken it six minutes earlier.
“Can that prove anything?”
“It can prove she possessed a version with language different from whatever Daniel produces.”
“That sounds weak.”
“It’s not nothing.”
Marcus stepped farther into the room.
“I may have something stronger.”
Officer Reyes gave him a look.
“What did you do?”
“Nothing after you told me not to.”
“Good start.”
He held up his phone but did not unlock it.
“Our team pulled publicly available corporate records.”
Reyes frowned.
“That’s fine.”
“Leonard Miller’s property company owns Ava’s building through an LLC.”
“I know that part.”
“He also owns the company that maintains the security system.”
I looked at him.
“So?”
Marcus’s mouth tightened.
“The deletion request came from an administrator account assigned to Leonard’s office.”
Reyes stared at him.
“You have documentation?”
“Yes.”
“Do not send it to me from your internal report.”
Marcus blinked.
“Why?”
“Because then I get to spend six months arguing about how your private security people obtained it.”
He looked irritated.
“I told you it was public and vendor-supplied.”
“You also work for a billionaire with more lawyers than some counties.”
Elias spoke from behind her.
“She has a point.”
Marcus looked offended on principle.
Officer Reyes continued.
“Give me the vendor name and the public record trail.”
“I can do that.”
“Good.”
She turned back to me.
“We need to talk about where you stay today.”
I looked at Elias.
He said nothing.
The choice was mine.
That was somehow harder.
“If I stay here, Daniel will say Elias is controlling me.”
“He’ll say something regardless.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
“No.”
Reyes folded her arms.
“You staying here may complicate appearances.”
Elias’s jaw tightened.
She continued.
“It may also be the safest immediate option if the building Daniel controls is your only other residence.”
I looked at the babies.
“Could I go to a shelter?”
May you like
“Yes.”
“Would he find me?”
