Chương 5
Grace looked between us.
Then she slowly descended one step.
I didn’t move.
Another step.
She stopped halfway down.
“Give me the fake phone.”
I picked it up and held it toward her.
She came the rest of the way carefully.
When she reached the bottom, she took the phone without touching my hand.
Her thumb moved across the screen.
She found the forged messages.
I watched her read three of them.
Then five.
Her face changed in small increments.
Confusion first.
Then anger.
Then something worse.
Recognition.
“You don’t use periods in short texts.”
I stared at her.
“What?”
“When you text one sentence, you almost never put a period at the end.”
Victor looked at me as if this were an odd time for grammar.
Grace kept scrolling.
“And you don’t call me Grace when we’re fighting.”
“What do I call you?”
She looked up.
“Gracie.”
I had not called her that since entering the house because I had been afraid the intimacy would sound like another manipulation.
She stared at me.
I said it quietly.
“Gracie.”
Her mouth trembled.
She looked away immediately.
That small movement hurt more than anything my mother had done to me.
The dispatcher’s voice came through Victor’s phone, asking whether the front entrance was clear for paramedics.
Victor walked toward the door.
Grace grabbed my sleeve.
The contact surprised both of us.
She released me at once.
“Don’t let them separate me.”
“I won’t.”
“If I tell you to leave, you leave.”
“Yes.”
“If I tell you not to sign something, you don’t sign it.”
“Yes.”
“If your mother shows up—”
“She won’t get near you.”
Grace’s eyes hardened.
“You don’t get to decide that by yourself anymore.”
I nodded.
“You’re right.”
Outside, sirens became audible through the rain.
Grace closed her eyes.
For the first time since I had arrived, she leaned toward me.
Not into me.
Just close enough that our shoulders touched.
“I hate you a little,” she whispered.
My throat closed.
“I know.”
“I know it doesn’t make sense.”
“It makes perfect sense.”
“No, it doesn’t.”
She opened her eyes.
“I knew some of those messages weren’t you.”
I said nothing.
“I knew.”
Tears slid down her face, and she wiped them away angrily.
“But after enough days, I started thinking maybe I only believed that because I couldn’t survive believing anything else.”
The sirens grew louder.
I wanted to tell her none of it was her fault.
The words felt too easy.
So I stood beside her in silence.
Then headlights flooded the front windows.
Victor opened the door.
Two paramedics hurried inside carrying bags and a folded stretcher.
A third figure stepped out of the ambulance behind them.
My mother came through the rain without an umbrella.
Grace saw her.
Her hand closed around mine so hard that my wedding ring cut into my finger.
My mother stopped in the doorway.
“Daniel,” she said.
Grace stepped in front of me.
“No.”
Her voice was shaky, but it carried through the room.
“You don’t talk to him.”
My mother looked at her as though she had become an object behaving incorrectly.
Grace’s grip tightened.
“You talk to me now.”
My mother’s gaze moved from Grace’s face to the hand gripping mine, and something cold passed through her expression before she hid it.
“Grace, you are in labor.”
“I’m aware.”
“This is not the time for theatrics.”
One of the paramedics glanced at Victor.
Victor gave him a look that said not now.
Grace laughed once, breathlessly.
“You locked me in a room for twelve days, and I’m theatrical.”
“Your condition required supervision.”
“My condition is pregnancy.”
“You were hysterical.”
“I was imprisoned.”
The paramedic nearest Grace stepped gently between them.
“Ma’am, I need to check your vitals.”
Grace looked at him.
“What’s your name?”
“Evan.”
“Who do you work for?”
“Lake County EMS.”
“Do you know her?”
He glanced toward my mother.
“No.”
“Do you know my husband?”
“No.”
“Good.”
She released my hand and held out her arm.
Evan wrapped a blood pressure cuff around it.
My mother stepped farther inside.
Victor blocked her without touching her.
“Mrs. Hale, stay by the door.”
She stared at him.
“You work for me.”
“Not tonight.”
That surprised even him.
I saw it in the way he swallowed afterward.
My mother’s mouth flattened.
“You will regret making decisions outside your role.”
Victor looked tired.
“Probably.”
Grace’s blood pressure was high.
Evan repeated it manually.
The second number made his partner exchange a glance with him.
“What?” Grace asked.
“Your pressure is elevated.”
“How elevated?”
He told her.
Grace closed her eyes.
“Is the baby okay?”
“We need to get you monitored.”
“Can I choose the hospital?”
“If you and the baby remain stable enough for the drive, we can request a destination, but I can’t promise.”
My mother said, “St. Augustine has her records.”
Grace turned her head slowly.
“No.”
“Grace, be reasonable.”
“I said no.”
Evan looked between them.
“Who is her medical power of attorney?”
“I’m her husband,” I said.
Grace immediately said, “That doesn’t mean he chooses.”
Evan nodded.
“You’re conscious and able to make decisions.”
My mother’s face tightened again.
That sentence seemed to irritate her more than anything else.
Grace noticed.
“So that’s the problem, isn’t it?”
My mother’s eyes narrowed.
“What are you talking about?”
“You needed people to believe I couldn’t make decisions.”
“You were unstable.”
“I was angry.”
“You threatened staff.”
“I threatened to break a window.”
“You refused medication.”
“Because nobody would tell me what it was.”
Dr. Mercer had given her something.
The thought hit me so hard I stepped forward.
“What medication?”
Grace looked at me.
“I don’t know.”
My mother said, “A mild sedative.”
“Name it.”
She did not.
I took another step.
“Name it.”
Evan raised one hand.
“Sir, I need everyone calm.”
May you like
I turned away from my mother because if I kept looking at her, calm would become impossible.
Grace’s contraction started before Evan finished taking her pulse.
