Chương 5
Liam looked through the cafeteria window at the pale morning sky over the parking garage.
Vega lowered her voice. “People imagine leaving is one decision. It is usually fifty decisions, and each one can cost money, housing, custody, reputation, family, work, or safety. Your sister is waking up to all fifty.”
“She nearly died.”
“I know.”
“Then why isn’t that enough?”
“For you? It is. For her, it may only be one more thing she has to survive.”
Anna remained in the hospital for four days.
During the first day, she spoke little. She accepted pain medication only after asking whether it would make her confused. She flinched when male staff entered without announcing themselves. When Liam visited, she watched his hands before she looked at his face.
He tried not to ask questions.
He brought her lip balm, a soft toothbrush, and the gray cardigan she kept at his apartment. He had washed it twice because it still smelled faintly of his cooking. He placed each item on the chair and waited for permission before moving closer.
On the second morning, Anna asked him to open the blinds.
The window faced the concrete side of the parking structure.
“Great view,” Liam said.
She examined it for a while. “You always did oversell things.”
It was the first sentence that sounded like her.
He sat beside the bed. “Sophie is still with Margaret.”
“I know.”
“Dana spoke with her.”
“I know.”
“Margaret says Sophie has school clothes and her medication there.”
Anna turned from the window. “She doesn’t take medication.”
“That’s what I told Dana.”
“She takes vitamins shaped like bears. Margaret calls everything medication because it makes her feel useful.”
Liam almost smiled. Anna did not.
“Has Ethan contacted you?” he asked.
Her gaze dropped to the blanket.
“Not directly.”
“How?”
“His lawyer told Dana he wants to make sure I have access to the joint accounts.”
“That’s generous.”
“Don’t.”
“What?”
“Make everything simple.”
“He beat you.”
She closed her eyes.
Liam gripped the edge of his chair. “I’m sorry.”
“You say that like you’re waiting for me to tell you it’s okay.”
“I don’t expect that.”
“You always expect something.”
He did not answer.
Anna opened her eyes again. “When Mom got sick, you made a spreadsheet.”
“We had seven medications and three specialists.”
“You color-coded it.”
“That was useful.”
“You made schedules for when I could sit with her.”
“I was trying to keep us from collapsing.”
“You told me when to sleep.”
“You weren’t sleeping.”
“You told me when to eat.”
“You weren’t eating.”
“You told me what to say to the hospice nurse.”
Liam looked at the hospital floor.
Anna’s voice weakened, but she continued. “You help like a locked door.”
He sat very still.
Outside, someone laughed near the nurses’ station. The sound came and disappeared.
“I don’t know how to do this,” he said.
“I know.”
“What am I supposed to do?”
“For five minutes? Nothing.”
He leaned back.
They sat without talking. The monitor clicked softly. A food-service worker delivered a breakfast tray neither of them touched. Anna watched a pigeon walk along the narrow ledge outside the window. It pecked at a piece of gravel, appeared offended by the result, and flew away.
After several minutes, Anna reached toward the cup on her tray. Her hand trembled. Liam began to stand, then stopped.
She noticed.
“Water,” she said.
He handed it to her.
“Thank you.”
He sat again.
That afternoon, Anna asked Dana to help her petition for an emergency protective order.
She did not tell Liam until the paperwork was already being prepared.
Ethan was arrested later that evening.
The police had documented the bedroom floor where paramedics found Anna, a blood smear on the edge of a low dresser, and signs that the bathroom had been wiped down despite the shower being dry. A neighbor in the adjoining townhouse reported hearing a crash, a man shouting, and then nearly forty minutes of silence before the ambulance arrived.
Ethan’s phone records showed he had called an attorney before calling emergency services.
None of those facts proved exactly what happened, Detective Vega warned. Together with the medical findings and Anna’s partial statement to Dana, they supported probable cause.
Liam learned about the arrest from a television in the hospital lobby.
A reporter stood beneath Riverside’s illuminated sign and described Ethan as the chief financial officer of a regional development company. The report mentioned an “alleged domestic incident” and identified Liam as an emergency physician who had intervened during treatment.
A photograph appeared onscreen from a hospital charity gala. Ethan wore a tuxedo. Anna stood beside him in a green dress, smiling toward the camera. Liam was visible in the background holding a drink.
The photograph made them look like a family with expensive problems and good dental insurance.
By morning, the company had issued a statement placing Ethan on temporary leave while expressing confidence in due process. A former city council member posted that Ethan had always been a generous supporter of local housing initiatives. Someone else shared a photograph of him coaching Sophie’s soccer team.
Comments multiplied beneath the news article. Some called him a monster. Others called Anna unstable. Several accused Liam of abusing his position to settle a family dispute.
One person wrote that women did not stay with men who hurt them unless they wanted attention.
Liam read that comment three times before deleting the news app.
Anna refused to look at any of it.
A family-court judge issued a temporary protective order and directed that Sophie be released to Anna upon her discharge. Margaret Vale objected. She told the responding officer that Anna was medicated, confused, and being manipulated by her brother.
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Sophie arrived at Riverside carrying a pink backpack and a plastic container of bear-shaped vitamins.
She was eight years old, small for her age, with Ethan’s dark eyes and Anna’s habit of pressing her lips together when she was uncertain. She stopped at the doorway of the private room and stared at the bruises on her mother’s throat.
