Chapter 2 - The Message From Upstairs
Vanessa didn't hand the phone to Rachel immediately.
She stared at the screen as if the message itself had frightened her.
David saw the sender before I did.
His reaction was instant.
“Delete it.”
Rachel turned toward him.
“Why?”
“It's irrelevant.”
Vanessa backed away.
“You told me he wasn't here.”
My stomach tightened.
“Who?”
Vanessa looked at me.
“Dr. Malcolm Price.”
The name meant nothing to me.
Apparently, it meant everything to David.
Rachel's expression sharpened.
“Dr. Price is in the building?”
David interrupted.
“This has nothing to do with my wife.”
Vanessa finally showed Rachel the message.
I couldn't read every word from the bed, but I saw enough.
DON'T LET THE NURSE CALL ADMINISTRATION.
Rachel looked up.
“Who is Dr. Price?”
Vanessa answered.
“David's friend.”
David snapped, “Business acquaintance.”
“Then why did you tell me he arranged everything?”
My pulse climbed again.
Rachel noticed the monitor.
“Emma, breathe slowly.”
Emma.
My name.
Not patient.
Not wife.
Not unstable woman.
Emma.
I followed her instruction.
“In through your nose. Out slowly.”
The door opened.
Two hospital security officers entered with a nursing supervisor named Diane Holloway.
David immediately changed.
His shoulders lowered.
His voice softened.
“Thank God you're here.”
I almost laughed.
He was rebuilding the performance already.
“My wife is experiencing a psychiatric emergency,” he told Diane. “This nurse has misunderstood the situation.”
Diane looked at Rachel.
Rachel handed her the proxy form.
“The patient denies signing this. Husband admits his mother signed without authorization. Patient's call button was removed from her reach and hidden. A witness has video showing family members physically restraining the patient before staff intervention.”
Diane's face became unreadable.
“Medication administered?”
“No.”
“Good.”
One word.
David heard it too.
“What does that mean?”
Diane ignored him.
“Emma, do you know where you are?”
“St. Catherine's maternity unit. Room 412.”
“Do you know today's date?”
I answered.
“Do you know why you came here?”
“I was having contractions and dizziness. David said he was taking me to obstetric triage. Then his mother arrived, and suddenly everyone started asking me psychiatric questions.”
“Any thoughts of harming yourself?”
“No.”
“Anyone else?”
“No.”
“Your babies?”
The question hurt.
“Never.”
Diane nodded.
“Thank you.”
David stepped forward.
“She rehearsed this.”
I stared at him.
Something inside me finally stopped breaking.
Maybe there was nothing left for him to break.
“David,” I said quietly, “why is your friend texting Vanessa about hospital administration?”
He looked at me.
“We're not doing this.”
“We are now.”
Security positioned themselves near him.
He noticed.
Evelyn noticed too.
Vanessa sank into the chair by the wall.
“I need to explain something.”
David pointed at her.
“You don't say another word.”
One security officer stepped closer.
“Sir, don't threaten anyone.”
“I wasn't threatening her.”
Vanessa looked at me.
“I wasn't David's mistress.”
I felt the words like cold water.
“What?”
“He wanted you to think I was.”
Even David went silent.
Vanessa's eyes filled with tears.
“He hired me.”
“For what?”
“He said you were unstable and he needed documentation.”
My hands tightened around the blanket.
“He paid you to follow me?”
“At first, yes.”
David laughed bitterly.
“This is absurd.”
Vanessa ignored him.
“He said you were becoming paranoid. He wanted photographs of you checking his phone, following his car, confronting him.”
I remembered every moment.
Every mysterious text.
Every unexplained dinner.
Every time David had left his phone faceup where I could see Vanessa's name.
“You staged it.”
Vanessa nodded.
“He wanted you to believe we were having an affair.”
“Why?”
“I didn't know.”
David moved toward the door.
Security blocked him.
“I'm leaving.”
“No,” Diane said. “Administration is coming.”
His face tightened.
I looked at Vanessa.
“What changed?”
She glanced toward David.
“I saw what happened tonight.”
The contractions had slowed, but another wave of pressure moved through my abdomen.
Rachel checked the fetal monitors.
“Babies look stable.”
Those words gave me enough strength to keep going.
Vanessa opened her phone.
“David asked me to come here because he said you might become violent. He wanted proof.”
“But you filmed him.”
“I filmed what happened.”
David's voice exploded.
“You have no idea what you're getting involved in.”
Vanessa looked at him.
“I think I finally do.”
She turned back to me.
“There are other recordings.”
My heart stopped.
“Of me?”
“Of him.”
David's face went blank.
Vanessa continued.
“He called Dr. Price two nights ago.”
David lunged for the phone.
Security caught him before he reached her.
Everything happened at once.
Evelyn screamed.
The monitor alarm chirped.
Rachel moved toward me.
One officer forced David backward.
“Sir! Stop!”
Vanessa clutched the phone against her chest.
David wasn't pretending anymore.
“Give me that phone!”
“No.”
“You signed an agreement!”
“That agreement didn't include fraud.”
Diane looked at her.
“What recording do you have?”
Vanessa hesitated.
Then tapped the screen.
David's recorded voice filled the room.
“Once she signs the admission papers, it doesn't matter what she says afterward.”
Another voice answered.
“What if she refuses?”
David again.
“Then Mom signs. Emma won't be in a position to challenge anything.”
The recording ended.
Nobody spoke.
I felt as if the room had tilted.
Diane slowly looked at David.
“You need an attorney.”
David stared at me.
For one strange second, I saw the man I'd married.
Or maybe I saw the mask he had worn.
“Emma,” he said.
“No.”
“Listen to me.”
“No.”
“There are things you don't understand.”
“You're right.”
I looked at Vanessa's phone.
“But I'm starting to.”
Diane told security to escort David and Evelyn out of the room while administration reviewed what had happened.
Evelyn began shouting.
“This family belongs to us!”
I looked at her.
“What family?”
She stopped.
David turned toward his mother.
“Mom.”
But Evelyn had already said too much.
“What are you talking about?” I asked.
She stared at me.
“Nothing.”
Security moved them toward the door.
Then Evelyn looked at my stomach.
Not at me.
At my babies.
Her expression wasn't loving.
It was desperate.
“You have no idea what those children mean.”
David grabbed her arm.
“Stop talking.”
They disappeared into the hallway.
The door closed.
For the first time in hours, I was surrounded only by people who weren't trying to silence me.
Rachel adjusted my blanket.
Diane began making calls.
Vanessa sat trembling.
I looked at her.
“What did she mean?”
“I don't know.”
But she did.
I could see it.
“Vanessa.”
She looked down.
“David wasn't trying to have you committed because he thought you were unstable.”
“Then why?”
Before she could answer, Diane's phone rang.
She listened.
Her expression changed.
“Which account?”
A pause.
“How much?”
Another pause.
She slowly turned toward me.
“Emma, do you and your husband share financial accounts?”
“Yes.”
“Someone initiated a transfer from your joint investment account forty minutes ago.”
My mouth went dry.
“How much?”
May you like
Diane looked directly at me.
“Everything.”
