Chương 9
Kirsten picked up the toy and held it out.
Caleb stared at her gold earring.
Then he took the giraffe.
At the end of the hour, Melinda returned. Caleb saw her and ran with both arms lifted. Melinda dropped to her knees and caught him.
Kirsten looked away.
Mara pretended to straighten the books.
Melinda held Caleb against her neck. “Was he okay?”
“He was upset for four minutes,” Mara said. “Then he engaged.”
“With her?”
“With blocks.”
Melinda’s shoulders loosened.
Kirsten stood. “The cabinet hinge needs a larger screw.”
Mara said, “I’ll alert the governor.”
Melinda looked at Kirsten as if she did not understand how anyone could discuss furniture.
Kirsten did not understand either.
The second visit went worse.
Connor arrived late after photographers followed him from his office. Caleb ran to him, and Connor lifted him high enough to make him laugh. The sound filled the yellow room.
Kirsten stood beside the broken kitchen and felt jealousy arrive as cleanly as a fever.
Connor knew how Caleb liked to be held. He knew the child would reach for his watch. He had a packet of apple slices in his pocket and removed the skin from each one with his teeth because Caleb refused it.
Kirsten hated him for knowing.
Then she hated herself.
Connor sat on the floor and rolled a soft ball toward Caleb. “Take it to Kirsten.”
The child picked it up and walked away from her.
“Don’t direct him,” Kirsten said.
“I’m trying to include you.”
“He is not a conference call.”
Connor’s face tightened. “You don’t have to punish me in every room.”
“Then stop giving me work.”
Caleb looked between them.
Mara intervened. “Both of you, lower the temperature.”
“I’m calm,” Kirsten said.
Mara raised an eyebrow.
Connor laughed once.
Kirsten turned on him. “What?”
“Nothing.”
“That was not nothing.”
“You say you’re calm in exactly the voice you use when you are not calm.”
“You would know. You spent years making sure.”
Caleb dropped the ball.
The room became still.
Connor’s face closed. “I’m going to step out.”
He stood and left before Mara asked him to.
Caleb watched the door. His mouth pulled downward.
Kirsten felt the same shame she had wanted Connor to feel in the hospital. It offered no satisfaction.
She sat beside the child. “That wasn’t your fault.”
He picked up an apple slice and pushed it against the floor.
Mara said nothing.
After the visit, Kirsten found Connor in the hallway by a vending machine. He held a bottle of water without opening it.
“I’m sorry,” she said.
He looked at her.
“Not for being angry. For doing it in front of him.”
Connor nodded. “Me too.”
“You left.”
“I thought staying would make it worse.”
“It might have.”
He turned the unopened bottle in his hand. “He likes you.”
“He likes knocking things over.”
“That’s most of being one.”
Kirsten leaned against the wall.
For a minute, they stood without discussing stolen embryos, forged signatures, or lawyers. A custodian pushed a cart past them and muttered about someone putting gum in a drinking fountain.
Connor said, “I can give you his schedule.”
“Melinda won’t want that.”
“I’m his father.”
“Do not start borrowing authority now.”
He looked irritated, then let it pass. “I can tell you small things. He hates pears. He loves the vacuum cleaner. He sleeps with his knees under him like he’s praying.”
Kirsten looked at him.
“He throws the giraffe out of the crib and then cries because it’s gone,” Connor continued. “You have to wait about thirty seconds before giving it back, or he does it again.”
“Why thirty?”
“I don’t know. Parenting is mostly obeying rituals established by someone who cannot explain them.”
She almost smiled.
Connor opened the water. “I have videos.”
“No.”
The answer came too quickly.
He nodded and put the phone back in his pocket.
Kirsten regretted it before the moment ended, but did not change her mind.
That night, she dreamed of a storage tank filled with milk. The embryos floated inside it like small lights. Every time she reached down, her hospital ID badge fell from her neck and sank beyond view.
She woke with her hands clenched.
Northlake Reproductive Medicine suspended Dr. Rafael Vale two weeks after the genetic results. The clinic issued a statement expressing concern about “potential historical documentation irregularities” while insisting current patients remained safe.
No one believed a statement containing the word historical.
Former patients began requesting records. A local reporter identified two other discrepancies involving embryos classified as discarded. State regulators announced an investigation. The clinic’s insurer hired separate counsel. The hospital where Kirsten worked, which had no formal connection to Northlake, extended her leave because reporters still waited near the employee entrance.
Public sympathy shifted toward her, then away, then back again.
A photograph of Kirsten leaving the family-services center appeared online beneath the headline DOCTOR SEEKS CUSTODY OF FORMER FRIEND’S BABY. The article quoted an anonymous “source close to the family” who said Kirsten had never wanted to reduce her workload for children.
The statement was technically true. During marriage counseling, Connor had asked whether she would leave pediatric surgery if they became parents. Kirsten had said no. He had heard refusal to love a child properly. She had heard a demand to surrender the part of herself he once admired.
The online version reduced this to career woman chooses job.
Kirsten read every comment.
Asha found her doing it in the hospital cafeteria on the morning of her Human Resources meeting.
“Give me the phone,” Asha said.
“No.”
“You are reading strangers explain your uterus.”
“One says I have predatory cheekbones.”
“That is almost a compliment.”
“It has twelve hundred likes.”
Asha took the phone from her hand.
Kirsten reached for it. “I am not one of your residents.”
“No, residents occasionally follow instructions.”
May you like
The cafeteria smelled of burnt toast. At the next table, two technicians argued quietly about a fantasy football trade.
Asha slid the phone into her own coat pocket. “What did Kenneth tell you?”
