Chương 4
Victor moved between them.
“Everybody out.”
“No,” I said.
My voice surprised me.
Victor did not look at me.
“This is my home.”
“No.”
He faced me then.
I had one hand braced against the wall and the other under my belly.
My cheek throbbed.
My thigh felt hot and swollen.
But something in the room had shifted when Alex walked through the door.
Victor no longer controlled the audience.
“No,” I repeated.
“You don’t get to tell them to leave.”
His eyes narrowed.
“Claire, be careful.”
Alex took a step toward him.
I reached out and caught my brother’s sleeve.
He stopped.
That small stop mattered.
Alex could have hit him.
Part of me wanted him to.
I wanted Victor afraid.
I wanted him on the floor.
I wanted Helena to watch her son beg.
The thought came ugly and hot, and I hated myself for how good it felt.
Then I heard the baby’s heartbeat in my memory from the last ultrasound, impossibly fast and steady through the little room while Victor had complained about the parking fee.
“Don’t,” I told Alex.
He looked down at my hand gripping his sleeve.
“I’m not.”
Two police officers appeared at the open front door before anyone could say more.
A third person, a paramedic carrying a red bag, was behind them.
The first officer was a woman in her forties with a dark braid and a face that looked fully awake despite the hour.
“Who called?”
“I did,” Alex said.
She looked past him and saw me.
Her attention sharpened.
“Ma’am, are you Claire?”
“Yes.”
“Can you tell me if you’re safe right now?”
I looked at Victor.
He looked offended.
“Yes.”
The officer followed my gaze.
“I mean safe from anyone in this house.”
My mouth went dry.
Victor said, “Officer, there’s been a misunderstanding.”
She raised one hand without turning toward him.
“I’ll speak with you in a minute.”
The second officer guided Victor several feet away.
Victor resisted only enough to make clear he disliked being guided.
“I haven’t done anything.”
“Sir, stand over here.”
“This is ridiculous.”
The paramedic knelt beside me.
“My name’s Dana.”
She had pink reading glasses tucked into the neck of her uniform shirt.
“I’m going to check you over, okay?”
I nodded.
“Any contractions?”
“I don’t think so.”
“Any bleeding or fluid?”
“No.”
“Baby moving?”
“Yes.”
“When did you last feel movement?”
“Just now.”
“Good.”
She glanced at my cheek.
“Did you fall?”
I looked at the officer.
Then at Nora.
Then at Helena, who was staring at me with a warning so familiar that for one second I almost obeyed it.
“I fell after he woke me up.”
Victor exhaled loudly.
The officer said, “Who is he?”
“My husband.”
“What happened before you fell?”
My throat closed.
Dana placed two fingers gently against my wrist.
“You can take your time.”
That nearly ruined me.
Kindness had become so unfamiliar in my own kitchen that two fingers against my wrist felt unbearable.
I swallowed.
“He slapped me upstairs.”
Victor said, “That is a lie.”
The second officer moved between us.
“Sir.”
“She’s lying.”
The first officer kept her eyes on me.
“Then what happened?”
“He made me come downstairs and cook breakfast.”
Helena scoffed.
The officer looked toward her.
“Please don’t interrupt.”
“I live here.”
“Do you?”
Helena hesitated.
“No, but my son does.”
The officer returned her attention to me.
“I got dizzy.”
My voice shook.
“I fell.”
“And then?”
I could hear Raúl breathing through his nose.
Victor shifted near the dining room.
Nora stared at the floor.
“He hit me with a wooden stick.”
Dana stopped checking my pulse.
Only for a second.
Then she resumed.
“Where did he hit you?”
“My thigh first.”
I touched my upper arm.
“Here too.”
Victor gave a short incredulous laugh.
“You are actually doing this.”
The first officer turned.
“Sir, you need to stop speaking.”
“I have a right to defend myself.”
“You’ll have an opportunity to speak.”
“This is my house.”
She looked at him for a beat.
“Right now, it’s an active domestic violence investigation.”
The phrase entered the room like another person.
Domestic violence.
I had never used those words.
Not out loud.
Not even privately.
I had called it Victor’s temper.
Our problems.
Stress.
A rough patch.
His parents getting in his head.
My being too tired to argue properly.
Domestic violence sounded official and ugly.
It also sounded accurate.
Dana asked whether I could move my toes.
I did.
“Any numbness?”
“My left leg.”
“From the hit?”
“I don’t know.”
She looked toward the officer.
“I want her transported.”
Victor stepped forward.
“To where?”
Nobody answered him.
He looked at me.
“You’re going to a hospital because you tripped?”
Nora said, “Jesus, Victor.”
He snapped toward her.
“Stay out of this.”
She lifted her phone again.
“I was in it when you made me part of it.”
The first officer noticed.
“Do you have video?”
Nora’s face changed.
Fear replaced anger.
“I have some.”
Victor went completely still.
Helena said, “Delete it.”
The officer turned to her.
“Ma’am.”
Helena lifted her chin.
“It was a private family moment.”
Nora stared at her mother.
“You told him to hit her again.”
“I did not.”
“You did.”
“I was upset.”
“You laughed.”
“I did not laugh.”
Nora unlocked her phone.
Her hands were shaking so badly she missed the passcode once.
Victor said, “Nora, think very carefully.”
She looked at him.
For the first time, I saw something besides fear in her face.
Disgust.
“I am.”
The second officer stepped closer to Victor.
“Hands where I can see them.”
Victor spread both palms dramatically.
“This entire family is turning on me because my wife fell down.”
The first officer asked Nora, “Did you record what happened?”
“Some of it.”
“Can you show me without deleting or editing anything?”
Nora nodded.
She pressed the screen.
May you like
A tiny version of my kitchen appeared.
My own voice came through the phone.
