Chapter 3
My sister came before sunrise.
Claire walked into the hospital room wearing sweatpants, no makeup, and the expression of a woman ready to destroy a building by hand.
She took one look at Lily.
Then one look at me.
“I’m taking you both home with me.”
Daniel stood in the corner.
“That’s not necessary.”
Claire did not even look at him.
“The man who needs to be told this is necessary does not get a vote.”
“Claire,” he snapped.
She turned slowly.
“I am one sentence away from making your life very uncomfortable.”
He shut his mouth.
That was Claire’s gift.
She said what I only screamed inside.
I signed discharge papers with Lily asleep against my chest.
Daniel followed me into the hallway.
“Amelia, we need to talk.”
“We will. Through lawyers.”
His face hardened.
“Don’t do that.”
“Do what?”
“Turn this into something bigger.”
I stared at him.
Bigger.
My baby had been left in a trash can.
His mother had invented a kidnapping.
Police had searched the neighborhood while Margaret pretended to pray in my kitchen.
And he wanted smaller.
I stepped closer.
“You want smaller because smaller lets you survive this without changing.”
He swallowed.
“That’s not fair.”
“No, Daniel. What happened to Lily was not fair.”
He reached for my arm.
Claire stepped between us.
“Touch her and I’ll scream loud enough to wake the surgical floor.”
Daniel lowered his hand.
At Claire’s house, I slept for twenty minutes at a time.
Every time Lily made the smallest sound, I woke in terror.
Every silence felt dangerous.
Claire installed a baby monitor beside the couch and sat awake with a baseball bat across her lap.
“You don’t have to do that,” I whispered.
“Yes, I do.”
At noon, my phone rang.
Daniel.
I ignored it.
Then his father called.
Robert Hale.
I almost ignored that too.
Claire nodded toward the phone.
“Speaker.”
I answered.
Robert’s voice was low.
“Amelia. Is Lily all right?”
“She’s alive.”
He inhaled sharply.
“I saw the video.”
I closed my eyes.
“Then you know.”
“Yes.”
A pause.
Then his voice broke.
“I am ashamed.”
I had never heard Robert Hale sound human.
He was a quiet man.
A retired judge.
Polite, distant, always standing three steps behind Margaret’s cruelty like silence made him innocent.
“Where is Daniel?” he asked.
“I don’t know.”
“He came here.”
My blood chilled.
“With Margaret?”
“No. She is still in custody.”
“Then why are you calling?”
Robert hesitated.
“Because Daniel is asking me to hire an attorney for her.”
Claire sat up straight.
My heart turned to stone.
“He’s what?”
Robert’s voice hardened.
“And I told him no.”
I could barely speak.
Robert continued.
“Then he said something I think you need to know.”
“What?”
“He said if you keep Lily from him, he’ll tell the court you were the one who endangered her by falling asleep.”
The room spun.
Claire whispered, “That son of a—”
May you like
Robert interrupted.
“I recorded him.”
