Chương 15
Maya’s fingers tightened around the blanket.
“Yes.”
“What did she say?”
“She said David was worried I was becoming overwhelmed.”
My throat tightened.
“She said he thought maybe I shouldn’t be alone with the baby until I was sleeping better.”
Ruiz glanced at me.
I shook my head.
“I never said that.”
He did not react.
He looked back at Maya.
“Anything else?”
“She said he was embarrassed by how anxious I was.”
The room blurred for a second.
Maya continued.
“She said he had asked her to make decisions because I was too emotional.”
Ruiz’s pen stopped.
“Did she say this before or after she installed the cameras?”
“I didn’t know about the cameras.”
“Right.”
He corrected himself.
“Did she say it before Liam was born?”
“No.”
“After?”
“Yes.”
He asked about the medication.
Maya described the bottle, the argument, and the trash bag.
Then the missing food.
Then the photographs.
Then the things she had believed she misplaced.
By the time she reached the breast pump, her voice had gone flat.
“I thought I was losing my memory.”
Ruiz looked up.
“What did Eleanor say when you couldn’t find things?”
“That exhaustion was making me unreliable.”
“Her word?”
“Yes.”
“Unreliable.”
“Yes.”
He wrote it down.
The interview took nearly an hour.
At the end, Ruiz closed the folder.
“I want to be careful about expectations.”
Maya nodded.
“So far, there are several separate issues.”
He counted them without dramatizing them.
“Property removal.”
“Possible unauthorized account access.”
“Identity documents.”
“Potential unlawful recording.”
“Medication disposal.”
“And depending on what the recordings show, there may be other conduct we need to evaluate.”
“Will she be arrested?” I asked.
Ruiz looked at me.
“I’m not promising you an arrest.”
My jaw tightened.
He continued before I could object.
“My job is not to produce the ending you want.”
“I want accountability.”
“I know.”
“No.”
I leaned forward.
“I want her to stop being able to say this was all a misunderstanding.”
Ruiz studied me for a moment.
“That is more realistic.”
I sat back.
He added, “Records are hard to argue with.”
Maya asked, “What about the nursery camera?”
Ruiz’s expression changed slightly.
“We are prioritizing that device.”
“Did it record me?”
“We believe so.”
Maya’s face drained.
I reached for her hand.
She did not take it.
“What kind of recording?” she asked.
Ruiz chose his words.
“The device captured video from the nursery over multiple days.”
Maya looked down at her hospital gown.
“Feeding?”
“Yes.”
“Changing clothes?”
“I do not want to answer beyond what has been properly reviewed.”
“That means yes.”
Ruiz did not confirm it.
He did not need to.
Maya turned toward the wall.
For several seconds, nobody moved.
Then she said, “I want charges.”
Ruiz nodded.
“I understand.”
“I don’t care if she says she meant well.”
“That is not the standard.”
“I don’t care if Chloe cries.”
“Okay.”
“I don’t care if my husband changes his mind next week.”
I looked at her.
She still would not look back.
Ruiz said, “This is your statement.”
“Yes.”
Her voice shook.
“I want it documented that I did not consent.”
“It will be.”
He left shortly before seven.
Afterward, Maya was quiet.
I fed Liam while she stared out the dark window.
Cars moved along the avenue below, headlights sliding across wet pavement.
Finally she said, “Would you change your mind?”
“No.”
“If your mother gets arrested.”
“No.”
“If Chloe says this will destroy the family.”
“No.”
“If your dad calls.”
That one stopped me.
My father had died six years earlier.
Maya realized immediately.
“I meant if he were alive.”
“I know.”
“Sorry.”
“It’s okay.”
She rubbed her forehead.
“I’m tired.”
I looked at Liam.
“My father would have asked me to smooth it over.”
“I know.”
“And I probably would have.”
Maya turned toward me.
“Before.”
“Yes.”
“What changed?”
I almost said tonight.
That would have been too simple.
What changed was not one night.
It was every old compromise becoming visible at once.
“I finally saw where keeping the peace leads.”
She looked at me for a long time.
Then she nodded.
At eight thirty, Chloe sent me a message.
Mom knows Mark talked to the detective.
Then:
She is furious.
Another:
She says she’s coming home tomorrow.
I forwarded the messages to Ruiz.
He replied with a single instruction.
Do not meet her alone.
Maya read it.
“She’ll come to the apartment.”
“The locks are changed.”
“She’ll make a scene.”
“Probably.”
“She’ll call everyone.”
“Probably.”
Maya looked down at Liam.
“Good.”
I raised an eyebrow.
She looked exhausted, fever-worn, and more certain than I had seen her in days.
“Let her call everyone.”
My phone rang before I could answer.
An unfamiliar Florida number.
I let it go to voicemail.
Thirty seconds later, a message appeared.
This is security at the Marlowe South Beach.
Please contact us regarding a disturbance involving members of your party.
“My party?”
Maya said.
“I didn’t book anything.”
I called the hotel.
A security manager named Castillo answered.
He verified my name and asked whether Eleanor Mercer was my mother.
“Yes.”
“Sir, she is telling us the room and incidentals were authorized by you.”
“They were not.”
There was a pause.
“She also says the documents in her possession belong to you.”
“Some do.”
“Police are here.”
I stood.
“What happened?”
Castillo hesitated.
“Your brother-in-law attempted to remove a folder from her room.”
“He told me she had my documents.”
“There was an argument.”
“Is anyone hurt?”
“No.”
“What do the police need from me?”
“Confirmation of ownership would help.”
I put him on speaker.
Maya listened.
Castillo continued.
“Mrs. Mercer is claiming the folder was given to her for safekeeping.”
“It was not,” I said.
Maya leaned toward the phone.
“My passport is in that folder.”
Castillo asked her name.
She gave it.
“And my son’s birth certificate may be in Eleanor Mercer’s purse.”
Another pause.
“The infant’s?”
“Yes.”
May you like
“We’ll relay that.”
I heard voices in the background.
