Chapter 3: What He Told My Mother
Rachel kept the phone pressed to her ear for a long time without speaking.
I watched her face.
She had a way of going very still when something was wrong — not frozen, just careful, like she was deciding exactly how much to say and to whom.
"Okay, Mom," she said finally.
"Don't let him leave.
I'll call you back in ten minutes."
She hung up and looked at me.
"He told her you had a breakdown," Rachel said.
"He told her you weren't well, that you'd been struggling for months, and that he was worried you'd done something to yourself."
The word landed in the room like something dropped from a height.
"He told her that?" I said.
"He also told her he doesn't know where you are." Rachel set her phone on the windowsill.
"He cried, apparently.
Mom said he was shaking."
I looked down at Emily, still sleeping against my chest.
"He's building a story," I said.
"Yes."
"Before I can build mine."
Rachel pulled her chair closer to the bed.
"Mom doesn't know about Karen.
She doesn't know about any of it.
She only knows what Derek just told her, which means right now, in her head, you're the one who disappeared without a word while your husband was out of his mind with worry."
I felt the shape of it clearly.
Derek wasn't panicking.
He was working.
"Call her back," I said.
"Tell her I'm fine.
Tell her Emily is here."
Rachel was already dialing.
The call connected on the second ring.
"Mom, she's okay." Rachel's voice was steady.
"She's at a hospital in Pennsylvania.
She had the baby last night." A pause.
"Yes.
A girl.
Emily." Another pause, longer.
"Mom, I need you to listen to me carefully.
Derek is not telling you the truth."
I could hear my mother's voice through the phone — not the words, just the tone.
Confused.
Upset.
Asking questions faster than Rachel could answer them.
"No," Rachel said.
"She didn't have a breakdown.
She left him.
There's a difference." She glanced at me.
"There's a lot you don't know yet.
But right now I need you to ask Derek to leave your house."
The voice on the other end rose sharply.
Rachel closed her eyes for a moment.
"Mom.
Please.
Just ask him to leave."
A long silence.
Then Rachel exhaled.
"Thank you.
I'll explain everything tonight.
I promise."
She hung up and sat back in the chair.
"He left," she said.
"But he told Mom to call him the moment she hears from you.
He said he just wants to know you're safe."
"He wants to know where I am."
"Yes."
Emily stirred against my chest.
I adjusted her carefully, and she settled again without waking.
"He's going to come here," I said.
"Once he figures out I'm not in Columbus, he'll start calling hospitals."
"He doesn't know which direction you went."
"He'll guess east.
Rachel, he knows about Pittsburgh.
He knows about you."
Rachel was quiet for a moment.
"Then we need to talk to someone before he gets here," she said.
"Not just family.
Someone official."
I looked at her.
"I already called someone," she said.
"Last night, while you were in labor.
A family law attorney.
Her name is Diane.
She said she can be here by noon if you want her."
I hadn't asked her to do that.
I hadn't even thought that far ahead.
"You called a lawyer," I said.
"I called a lawyer."
Emily made a small sound.
Her fingers curled around the edge of the hospital blanket.
"Tell her noon is fine," I said.
Rachel nodded and reached for her phone again.
Outside the window, the Pennsylvania sky was pale and still.
Somewhere behind us, two hundred miles west, Derek was in his car.
I didn't know exactly where he was going.
But I knew he wasn't done.
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He had never once in six years let anything go without a fight.
And I had just taken the one thing he hadn't expected to lose.
