Chapter 2 - What She Had Been Taking
I stared at Dr. Hale like he had slapped me.
“An accident is the only thing that makes sense,” I said. “She didn’t take anything. She doesn’t drink. She doesn’t—”
“Mrs. Brooks,” he interrupted gently, “I’m not accusing your daughter.”
Nia’s grip tightened.
That sentence scared me more than anything else.
Dr. Hale pulled his rolling stool closer. “Nia, I need you to answer me honestly. Do you take any medicine, supplements, gummies, powders, drops—anything at all?”
She shook her head.
Then stopped.
I saw it.
A tiny hesitation.
“Nia.”
Her eyes slid toward me.
“There are vitamins.”
“What vitamins?”
“Caleb gives them to me.”
The name landed like a brick.
Caleb was my husband.
Nia’s stepfather.
The man who had driven us to soccer practice, fixed our garbage disposal, packed her lunch when I worked early shifts, and spent the last four years telling everyone he loved her like his own.
I heard myself ask, “What vitamins?”
“I don’t know. They’re in a white bottle.”
“Where?”
“In the pantry. Top shelf. He says they’re for my iron.”
I turned to Dr. Hale. “She had low iron last year.”
“Were they prescribed?”
“No.”
“Did you buy them?”
“No.”
The monitor kept beeping.
Nia stared at the ceiling. “He gets mad if I forget.”
My mouth went dry.
“What do you mean, mad?”
“He checks.”
“Checks what?”
“If I swallowed them.”
I felt the floor tilt.
Nia’s voice got smaller. “Sometimes he stands there until I open my mouth.”
I could barely hear the next question come out of me.
“How long?”
“Since spring.”
Six months.
Six months of Caleb handing my daughter something every day while I praised him for “helping.”
Dr. Hale turned the computer screen slightly away from Nia.
I caught three words before he did.
Abnormal clotting time.
I looked at him.
“What does that mean?”
“We’re running confirmation tests.”
“For what?”
Before he could answer, somebody knocked on the door.
A security officer stepped inside.
And behind him, in the hallway, I saw Caleb walking toward us with a paper cup of coffee in his hand.
May you like
Smiling.
Like he had no idea why the door was suddenly locked.
