Chapter 3 - A Signature at Four Twelve
“Ethan signed it?” Adrian asked.
Ethan stopped dead. A cluster of guests turned toward him, and someone said his name loud enough for the whole ballroom to hear.
“I didn't sign anything,” Ethan answered.
“Then you won't mind saying that to the police.”
The paramedics lifted Nora carefully onto a stretcher. She cried out once, then bit her lip hard enough that Adrian could see the effort it took not to cry again.
“I'm coming with you,” he said.
Nora caught his hand. “Lily first. She saw everything.”
Lily was still holding his jacket. “Will the baby be okay?”
Adrian crouched. “The doctors are going to take care of Mom. Aunt Claire will stay with you until I know more.”
Claire stepped up immediately. “Of course.”
Patricia returned with the folder pressed to her chest. “Adrian, this is family business. We can handle it privately.”
“Put it down.”
“Your ex-wife has been trying to poison you against us for months.”
“Nora is on a stretcher, Mom.”
Patricia's expression tightened. “And that means she can accuse anyone of anything?”
Adrian reached for the folder, but a security guard intervened. “Sir, we don't want another disturbance.”
“Call the police,” Claire said. “There's already been one.”
For a moment the only sound was the soft beeping of the paramedics' monitor. Then Ethan moved beside Patricia and placed himself between her and his brother.
“Adrian, please. We can explain.”
“That wasn't an answer.”
The guard took one step back. Someone near the doors muttered that a police cruiser had pulled up outside.
Nora squeezed Adrian's fingers before they wheeled her away. “Don't trust the first copy,” she said. “Look under the tab marked August.”
“I don't understand.”
“You will.”
In the ambulance, Adrian tried to call Nora's lawyer. Straight to voicemail. He called again, then looked at the photo on Nora's lock screen: Lily in rain boots, laughing as her mother held an umbrella over her head. He remembered the night he moved out, telling himself their divorce would make everything calmer.
He had been wrong about so much.
At the hospital, a nurse took Nora toward labor and delivery while a doctor stopped Adrian outside the doors.
“We've detected signs of placental distress,” the doctor said. “We're preparing for the possibility of emergency delivery.”
Adrian's phone buzzed. Claire had texted him a photograph of the blue folder.
May you like
Under the AUGUST tab was a document titled: PETITION FOR TEMPORARY CUSTODY OF LILY COLE.
