Chương 3
Nobody spoke.
Hazel’s cries filled the space between them.
Sarah looked first at Genevieve’s reddening cheek, then at the documents on the bed, then at Julian holding the baby.
Finally, she looked at Eleanor.
“Please,” Sarah said, setting a clear evidence bag on the counter beside the door, “keep talking.”
Sarah’s voice changed the room more completely than a shout could have.
Julian lowered Hazel against his chest as though the baby had suddenly become evidence he should not be touching.
Eleanor straightened, one hand still suspended near the bed.
“What is this?”
Sarah walked past her without answering and stopped beside Genevieve.
Up close, the fury in her face became easier to see, although her voice remained maddeningly calm.
“Are you hurt anywhere besides your face?”
“My incision pulled when she hit me.”
The obstetrician, Dr. Patel, stepped forward.
“I need to examine her.”
Eleanor gave an incredulous laugh.
“Oh, for God’s sake, I slapped her.”
The security officer looked directly at her.
“Ma’am, I suggest you stop talking.”
Eleanor’s mouth closed.
Hazel was still crying.
Genevieve held out both arms.
“Please.”
Julian looked down at the baby and then toward Dr. Patel.
“She should be careful lifting her.”
“I am her physician,” Dr. Patel said.
“I’ll decide what she can safely do.”
The rebuke was quiet enough to embarrass him.
Julian crossed the few feet to the bed.
Genevieve took Hazel from him without touching his hands.
Her daughter weighed barely seven pounds, yet settling that warm, furious body against her chest required almost all the strength Genevieve had left.
Hazel rooted blindly against the hospital gown.
“There you are,” Genevieve whispered.
The baby kept crying for another few seconds before the sound weakened into outraged hiccups.
Genevieve kissed the damp hair above her forehead.
She had spent months wondering what kind of mother she would become.
Apparently she was going to begin by learning how to protect a child while unable to stand.
Sarah pulled the visitor chair close and sat.
“Genevieve, I need your permission to give the recording device to hospital security and preserve a copy for counsel.”
“You have it.”
Julian stared at her.
“What recording?”
Sarah looked at him for the first time.
“That question is why I asked you to keep talking.”
Victoria pulled Julian’s coat closed with both hands.
“You recorded us?”
Genevieve rested her cheek against Hazel’s head.
“Yes.”
Julian’s shock disappeared almost immediately beneath anger.
“You set us up.”
The absurdity of it made Dr. Patel glance at him.
Even the security officer raised his eyebrows.
Genevieve was too tired to laugh.
“You broke into my safe, brought fraudulent documents into my hospital room, threatened to have me declared incompetent, withheld my newborn from me, and your mother hit me.”
“They aren’t fraudulent.”
Julian pointed at the papers.
“Those were prepared by an attorney.”
“Which attorney?”
Sarah asked.
He hesitated.
Sarah waited.
“Martin Kessler.”
Something in her expression shifted.
Genevieve caught it.
“So you know him.”
“I know of him.”
That distinction was deliberate.
Sarah stood and examined the documents without touching them.
“Did Mr. Kessler personally give these to you?”
“No.”
“Who did?”
Julian looked toward Eleanor.
Eleanor folded her arms.
“I don’t answer interrogations conducted by ambulance chasers.”
Sarah blinked once.
“I do commercial litigation.”
“I don’t care what you call it.”
“Mom,” Julian muttered.
“No, I’m finished being spoken to like a criminal.”
The security officer cleared his throat.
“Mrs. Vance, hospital policy requires me to ask you to leave the room.”
Eleanor stared at him.
“This is my granddaughter.”
“This is a restricted maternity unit, and the patient wants you removed.”
“I never said that,” Genevieve said.
Everyone looked at her.
Eleanor’s expression brightened with premature triumph.
Genevieve shifted Hazel more securely into the crook of her arm.
“I want her name documented before she leaves.”
The triumph vanished.
“I want the assault photographed, and I want whatever incident procedure the hospital uses followed.”
Eleanor’s face hardened.
“You vindictive bitch.”
Julian caught his mother’s elbow.
“Stop.”
She jerked away from him.
“You let her do this and she’ll destroy you.”
Genevieve watched Julian absorb the sentence.
There it was again.
Not outrage at what they had done.
Fear of what she could do about it.
Dr. Patel touched Genevieve’s shoulder.
“I need to check your incision.”
Genevieve nodded.
Sarah turned toward the others.
“Then everyone except medical staff leaves.”
“I’m her husband,” Julian said.
“Not for this examination,” Genevieve replied.
His face changed.
Eleven years of marriage contracted into that small correction.
He looked as though he might argue, but Hazel made a sleepy squeak against Genevieve’s chest.
Julian stared at his daughter.
“I want to see her.”
“Not now.”
“You can’t keep my child from me.”
Genevieve nearly answered in anger.
Sarah’s hand closed gently around her wrist.
The pressure was enough.
Not now.
Not like this.
Genevieve swallowed the words she wanted and chose different ones.
“I’m asking you to leave while my doctor examines me.”
Julian understood the distinction.
So did Sarah.
He nodded once.
Victoria moved toward the door first.
The security officer stopped her.
“Ma’am, you’ll need to provide your name for the incident report.”
Victoria stared at him.
“I didn’t touch anybody.”
“I didn’t say you did.”
“I work for her.”
That sounded worse after she said it.
Genevieve watched embarrassment creep across Victoria’s face.
Sarah noticed too.
“Not as of this moment,” Genevieve said.
Victoria looked back.
“You can’t fire me because Julian and I are together.”
“No.”
Genevieve’s voice remained surprisingly steady.
“But I can place you on administrative leave while counsel investigates whether you participated in an attempt to obtain company voting authority from me under coercion.”
Victoria’s lips parted.
Julian stepped between them.
“She had nothing to do with the documents.”
“Five minutes ago she said, ‘We planned around it.’”
Victoria turned on him.
“You said the recording only started after you came in.”
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“I didn’t know there was a recording.”
“Then why did you just tell me—”
