Chapter 4: The Woman I Called in the Morning
Her name was Dr.
Renee Calloway.
She'd been Sally's pediatrician until Sally was sixteen, and then she'd become something harder to name — the woman I called when I didn't know who else to call.
She picked up on the second ring.
"Diane," she said.
Just my name.
Like she already knew it wasn't a casual call.
"I need to talk to you about Sally."
A pause.
"Tell me."
I told her everything.
The long sleeves.
The question in my kitchen three weeks ago.
The mark on her wrist last night.
The way Greg had watched us when he saw that we'd seen it.
Renee didn't interrupt.
When I finished, she said: "How old is the mark?"
"Weeks, I think.
Yellow at the edges."
"One visible mark or more than one?"
"One that I saw."
"Diane." She stopped.
Started again.
"What Sally told you — that it happened once — that's almost never the whole story.
You know that."
"I know that."
"Has she said anything that suggests Emmy has been affected?"
My stomach dropped.
I hadn't thought about Emmy.
Emmy was four.
"No," I said.
"Nothing."
"Okay.
Here's what I want you to do.
Don't confront Greg.
Not yet.
If he feels cornered before you have anything concrete, he'll isolate her faster than you can reach her.
These men are very good at that."
"What do I do instead?"
"Get Sally alone.
Not at your house — he'll know she talked to you there.
Somewhere neutral.
A coffee shop, a walk, anywhere that isn't a location he associates with the two of you having private conversations.
And when you get her alone, you don't ask her to leave him.
You don't ask her to report it.
You ask her one thing."
"What?"
"You ask her if she's safe right now.
Today.
This week.
And you listen to the answer very carefully, because the answer won't be in the words she uses."
I wrote that down on the notepad I keep by the phone.
Old habit.
"And if she's not?" I asked.
"Then you call me back and we talk about next steps.
There are people I can connect you with.
A family advocate.
A legal contact who handles these situations quietly." She paused.
"Diane, the most important thing right now is that Sally doesn't feel like she's being rescued against her will.
Women in these situations often go back to protect the man.
Not because they love him more than themselves.
Because they're afraid of what happens if they don't."
I sat with that.
"She told me silence was safer," I said.
"She's been taught that," Renee said.
"By him.
Probably over a long time."
After I hung up, I sat at the kitchen table with my coffee going cold and I thought about the Greg who had cleaned our gutters.
Who had remembered how I took my coffee.
Who had shaken my husband's hand with both of his.
I thought about how long it takes to build a mask that good.
My husband came downstairs.
He looked at my face.
"What did she say?"
"She said we don't move until we know more." I looked up at him.
"And she said Emmy might need to be considered."
He sat down slowly.
We didn't speak for a moment.
Then his phone buzzed on the table between us.
A text from an unknown number.
He turned it so I could read it.
*I know you saw.
Don't make this into something it isn't.
Sally is fine.
We are fine.
Let it go.*
No name.
May you like
But we both knew who had sent it.
Greg had seen us see the mark — and he hadn't waited until morning.
