Chapter 5 - The Wellness Check

Two officers stood in the hallway with Daniel behind them.

He looked exhausted, worried, almost gentle.

"Ma'am," one officer said to Rachel, "we received a request for a wellness check."

I stepped into view. "I'm fine."

Daniel leaned sideways. "Emily, please. I just need to know the baby's safe."

"You knew where I was?"

He ignored the question. "She's eight months pregnant. She left after an emotional episode."

Rachel's eyebrows shot up. "An emotional episode? Your mother slapped her."

The second officer looked at Daniel. "Sir, were police called about an assault last night?"

His mouth tightened.

I showed them the hospital discharge papers and the incident number.

"She's safe here," one said. "Unless there's a court order, she doesn't have to go anywhere with you."

Daniel stared at me. "Can I speak to my wife alone?"

"No," I said.

"Emily, this is insane."

"No. What's insane is keeping a file on your pregnant wife."

"That wasn't what you think."

"Then what was it?"

He looked at the officers, then at Rachel. "Not here."

"Exactly."

The officers asked him to leave.

Before he walked away, he said quietly, "Mom told me you'd do this."

An hour later, we were sitting at her kitchen table with coffee I couldn't drink and every page I had managed to photograph on my phone.

Rachel zoomed in on one of the documents.

"Look at the date."

It was six weeks old.

Rachel called an attorney she knew from work, Maya Patel, who agreed to see us that afternoon.

Maya read in silence for almost twenty minutes.

Then she set the papers down.

"This isn't a custody filing yet," she said. "It's preparation for one. Your husband appears to be collecting material to argue that you're unstable and that he should receive primary or sole custody after the baby is born."

"Can he do that?"

"He can ask. Asking and winning are very different things."

I exhaled.

Then Maya pointed to a line I had missed.

Proposed caregiver during Daniel's work hours: paternal grandmother, Margaret Carter.

My stomach turned.

Maya kept reading.

Her expression changed.

"Emily," she said slowly, "there's something else here."

She turned the page toward me.

It contained a plan for my first seventy-two hours after delivery.

May you like

She Tried to Kill a Disabled Woman at a Billionaire’s Pool Party—But One...

She had already lost her leg. Now, they were trying to take her life.At a luxury mansion filled with millionaires, a terrified you...

THEY DECLARED HER DEAD—THEN ORDERED HER CREMATED WHILE SHE WAS STILL ALI...

They were about to burn her alive.Her death certificate had already been signed. Her body was scheduled for immediate cremation. A...

She Pushed a Pregnant Woman in a Wheelchair Into the Pool—Then Her Husba...

She was pregnant. She was in a wheelchair. And the woman standing behind her was smiling.Seconds later, one brutal shove sent her...

And next to the words maternal psychiatric evaluation was a handwritten note:

Trigger at hospital if possible.