Chương 5
Please stop.
Then Victor’s.
Get up.
Then Helena laughing.
The officer watched without expression.
I could not.
I turned my face away.
Dana was wrapping a blood pressure cuff around my arm.
Alex had moved to the wall beside me.
He stood with both hands clenched, opening and closing them slowly.
I knew that motion.
He used to do it after our father died, when he wanted to punch something and had learned not to.
The video continued.
My scream came from Nora’s phone.
Alex shut his eyes.
Victor said, “That doesn’t show context.”
Nobody answered.
“That doesn’t show what happened before.”
The officer stopped the video.
“What happened before?”
Victor hesitated.
I looked at him.
So did everyone else.
He glanced toward his mother.
Then his father.
Neither spoke.
His silence lasted two seconds too long.
The officer handed Nora’s phone back.
“Please don’t alter or delete that recording.”
“I won’t.”
“Can you send a copy to an evidence link if I provide one?”
Nora nodded.
Victor laughed again, but there was no confidence left in it.
“So that’s it?”
The officer faced him.
“What’s it?”
“My sister makes one video after Claire has been provoking me all morning, and suddenly I’m some criminal?”
My stomach turned.
There it was.
Not denial anymore.
Justification.
The first officer heard it too.
“What do you mean, provoking you?”
Victor’s eyes flicked toward mine.
He knew.
I watched him search for a version of the morning that could save him.
“She refused to get up.”
The second officer’s eyebrows moved slightly.
Victor continued before anyone could stop him.
“My parents are staying here.”
“And?”
“She has responsibilities.”
The first officer said nothing.
Victor mistook silence for encouragement.
“She’s pregnant, not disabled.”
Dana looked up from my blood pressure cuff.
Alex stared at the wall.
Nora covered her mouth.
Victor finally heard himself.
His face changed.
He tried to pull the words back.
“That came out wrong.”
The first officer asked, “Where is the object you used to hit her?”
“I didn’t hit her.”
Nora said, “Utility closet.”
Victor turned on her.
“You little—”
The second officer caught his arm.
Victor yanked away.
It happened fast.
Not a fight.
Barely even resistance.
But the room snapped tight.
“Turn around,” the officer said.
Victor froze.
“What?”
“Turn around.”
“You cannot be serious.”
“Hands behind your back.”
Helena rushed forward.
“No.”
Raúl grabbed her shoulder.
“Helena.”
“That is my son.”
“Ma’am, stay back.”
Victor looked at me while the officer cuffed him.
His face held something I had expected to enjoy.
Fear.
I did not enjoy it.
I felt sick.
He said my name softly.
“Claire.”
I looked down.
“Tell them.”
My fingers curled into my robe.
“Tell them this isn’t what they think.”
I could not answer.
“Claire, come on.”
The cuff clicked shut.
“We’re having a baby.”
That was the first moment I almost changed my mind.
Not because I believed him.
Because somewhere inside me lived the woman who had once stood beside him in a courthouse garden while his tie sat crooked and he whispered that he was terrified he would cry during the vows.
That man had existed.
Maybe only briefly.
Maybe not in the way I had believed.
But I had loved him.
Love does not vanish at the exact moment it becomes dangerous.
Sometimes that is what makes danger so hard to leave.
Dana touched my shoulder.
“We need to go.”
I nodded.
Victor said, “Claire.”
I looked at him once.
He opened his mouth.
Nothing came out.
For the first time in years, I did not help him find the words.
The paramedics helped me onto the stretcher while Victor stood near the front door with his hands cuffed behind him.
He kept trying to catch my eyes.
I kept looking at Dana’s pink reading glasses.
They were easier.
One lens had a faint scratch across the corner.
It was such a stupid detail that I clung to it.
“Claire, can you hear me?”
Dana asked.
“Yes.”
“Any new pain?”
“My stomach feels tight.”
Her face sharpened.
“Constant or coming and going?”
“I don’t know.”
She rested a hand near my knee.
“Don’t try to sit up.”
Alex walked beside the stretcher until the second paramedic stopped him at the ambulance.
“I’m her brother.”
“I know.”
“I’m coming.”
“You can follow us.”
“No, I’m riding with her.”
The paramedic looked at Dana.
Dana looked at me.
“Do you want him with you?”
“Yes.”
Alex climbed in without another word.
The rear doors closed, cutting off the house, the police lights, Helena’s voice, and Victor’s face.
For the first time that morning, I could not hear any of them.
The quiet lasted three seconds.
Then the ambulance engine started and every loose object around us began to rattle.
Dana clipped a monitor to my finger.
Alex sat on the narrow bench opposite me with his knees too close together.
He stared at my face.
“Stop.”
“What?”
“Looking at me like that.”
His jaw worked.
“I’m not.”
“You are.”
He looked down.
“Okay.”
I wanted to apologize.
The impulse arrived automatically.
I almost said sorry for making him see me this way.
Sorry for waking him before dawn.
Sorry for dragging him into the wreckage.
Instead I closed my mouth.
Dana asked me to rate my pain from one to ten.
“Six.”
Alex looked up.
“Eight.”
I frowned at him.
“She asked me.”
“You always say six.”
Dana’s eyes moved between us.
“Is that true?”
I sighed.
“Yes.”
“What would it be if you weren’t trying to be polite?”
“Seven.”
Alex said nothing, but I could feel his agreement from across the ambulance.
Dana checked my abdomen carefully.
“When was your last prenatal appointment?”
“Tuesday.”
“Any complications with the pregnancy?”
“No.”
“Blood pressure issues?”
“No.”
“Gestational diabetes?”
“No.”
“Placenta problems?”
“No.”
She nodded.
“Good.”
The word did not sound reassuring.
Nothing sounded reassuring anymore.
May you like
I watched the ceiling lights blur past above me as the ambulance turned.
My stomach tightened again.
