Chương 3
Sophia watched him go.
“This is absurd.”
No one answered.
Dr. Patel’s associate arrived twenty-three minutes later.
Her name was Dr. Allison Park. She examined Noah first in the library because Michael wanted him somewhere quieter.
No injuries.
Elevated pulse from fear.
No sign of head trauma.
Nothing requiring a hospital unless his behavior changed.
Then Dr. Park examined Elena.
The lip would heal without stitches.
The hand needed an X-ray.
“You have tenderness over the fourth metacarpal,” Dr. Park said.
“I don’t know what that means.”
“It means I don’t want you carrying groceries with that hand until we know it isn’t fractured.”
Elena looked toward the closed library door.
“I work here.”
“Not with that hand today.”
Michael, standing by the window with Noah in his arms, said, “She’s not working today.”
Elena looked at him.
“I can finish—”
“You are not finishing anything.”
The impatience in his voice made her flinch.
Michael saw it.
He closed his eyes briefly.
“Sorry.”
She said nothing.
“That wasn’t directed at you.”
“I know.”
He shifted Noah higher against his chest.
“No. You didn’t.”
The room went quiet.
Dr. Park pretended to examine Elena’s fingers again.
Michael walked over.
“Elena, how long has this been happening?”
She could have misunderstood him.
She wished she had.
“What?”
“With Noah.”
Her heart began to pound.
He watched her face.
“How long?”
Elena looked at Dr. Park.
Then at Noah.
He had the rabbit again. Someone had found another clip, or perhaps Owen had simply tied it loosely to the stroller strap before giving it back. Noah rubbed one ear between his fingers.
Elena lowered her voice.
“There were other things.”
Michael’s jaw shifted.
“What other things?”
“She gets impatient.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“No.”
He waited.
Elena wished he would interrupt her. Anger would have been easier than that patience.
“She yells at him sometimes.”
Sophia’s voice came from the doorway.
“I discipline my child.”
Everyone turned.
She stood with one hand on the doorframe.
Michael’s face hardened.
“I told you to stay in the living room.”
“And I told you this is my house.”
Dr. Park straightened.
“I think I should go.”
Michael nodded.
“Daniel will take Elena for the X-ray.”
“I can drive,” Elena said.
“No,” Dr. Park said.
Elena looked at her.
“Your dominant hand is swelling. You’re upset. Don’t drive.”
Sophia crossed her arms.
“Wonderful. Everyone gets an opinion.”
Dr. Park looked at her.
“I’m the physician in the room.”
Sophia’s lips parted.
Then she smiled.
It was an old reflex, Elena thought. The smile of someone who had learned that if she looked beautiful enough while being cruel, people sometimes questioned whether cruelty had happened.
“Well,” Sophia said, “thank you for your concern.”
Dr. Park did not respond to the smile.
She handed Elena a printed note.
“If the X-ray is clear, ice it, rest it, and take the anti-inflammatory we discussed. If you get numbness or worsening pain, go to urgent care.”
Michael thanked her.
Sophia walked away before he finished.
Elena wanted to leave too.
Not because she was afraid of Sophia anymore.
Because Michael was looking at her with a question she had spent months avoiding.
Daniel drove her to an orthopedic urgent care in a black SUV that smelled faintly of leather and peppermint gum.
For the first five minutes, neither spoke.
Elena kept her injured hand on the ice pack in her lap.
Daniel drove with both hands on the wheel.
Finally he said, “You want me to turn off the radio?”
She had not noticed it was on.
“No.”
A sports commentator was talking about a baseball trade.
She stared out the window.
People were doing normal things.
A woman pushed a double stroller past a coffee shop.
A teenager balanced a pizza box on one hand while unlocking a bicycle.
A man in a fluorescent vest argued with someone through a car window.
Elena looked away from the stroller.
Daniel noticed that too.
“You saved the kid.”
“Please don’t.”
“Don’t what?”
“Say it like that.”
“Like what?”
“Like I did something heroic.”
He glanced at her.
“What would you call it?”
“My job.”
“I don’t think catching runaway strollers is in the job description.”
“It shouldn’t have moved.”
“No.”
She pressed the towel harder against her hand.
“I should have told him before.”
Daniel said nothing.
“That’s what you’re thinking.”
“No.”
“It’s what I’m thinking.”
“That’s different.”
She watched houses pass outside.
“I kept deciding every other thing wasn’t bad enough.”
“What things?”
Elena turned toward him.
Daniel kept his eyes on the road.
“You don’t have to tell me.”
“Then why ask?”
“Because Michael is going to.”
She swallowed.
Daniel stopped at a red light.
“I’ve worked for him nine years,” he said. “There are things he forgives if you lie because you’re scared. There are things he doesn’t.”
“What doesn’t he forgive?”
“People making decisions for him about his son.”
Elena looked down.
“That’s what I did.”
“Maybe.”
The light turned green.
Daniel drove.
“But if you’re asking whether you should lie again to fix the first lie, I wouldn’t recommend it.”
The X-ray showed no fracture.
By the time Elena returned to the mansion, two uniformed police officers were in the foyer.
She stopped walking.
Daniel glanced at her.
“Michael called them.”
“I figured.”
“You can leave if you want.”
Elena looked at him.
“What happens if I do?”
“They’ll probably contact you.”
“No. I mean to Noah.”
Daniel’s expression changed slightly.
“I don’t know.”
That answer brought her inside.
One officer interviewed Elena in a small sitting room.
The officer’s name was Megan Callahan. Her partner, Officer Reid, stayed near the hall.
Callahan did not treat Elena like a hero.
Elena appreciated that.
She asked exactly where Sophia had stood.
Exactly when the stroller began moving.
Whether Sophia touched it.
Whether Elena saw her release it.
Whether the brake had been engaged.
Whether anyone else was present.
May you like
Whether Elena had consumed alcohol or medication.
Whether Sophia had threatened her.
