Chapter 4 - The Baby Is Still There
Elena was discharged at four-thirty with instructions to rest, monitor fetal movement, and return immediately for bleeding, contractions, severe pain, or reduced movement.
The baby remained stable.
Dr. Patel repeated that word.
Stable.
Not invulnerable.
Not guaranteed.
Stable.
Elena clung to it.
Claire drove her to her townhouse in Newton.
Miles followed.
When they arrived, he carried Elena’s overnight bag inside as though he still belonged there.
Claire’s husband, Ben, came down from his home office and took the bag from him.
“Thanks. I’ve got it.”
Miles did not release the handle immediately.
A strange tug-of-war lasted half a second.
Then he let go.
“Elena, can we talk?”
“Tomorrow.”
“We should go home.”
“No.”
“Our home has the nursery, your medication, everything.”
“Claire can pick things up.”
Miles looked at Claire.
“You’re involving yourself in something you don’t understand.”
Claire replied, “Elena asked me to help.”
“I’m her husband.”
Claire’s voice remained calm.
“That fact is not a universal permission slip.”
Miles stared.
Then he looked at Elena.
“Please.”
The word hurt.
Because he sounded like the man she married.
Elena almost hated him for that.
“You can call me tonight.”
His shoulders dropped.
“Okay.”
He left.
Claire locked the door.
Only then did Elena allow herself to cry.
Not loudly.
She sat on the couch with both hands over her belly and cried until her face hurt.
Claire sat beside her without saying everything happens for a reason or be strong.
Those phrases were useless.
Finally Elena whispered, “I still love him.”
“I know.”
“What if I’m wrong?”
“About what?”
“What if he really didn’t know?”
Claire thought before answering.
“He may not have known about the kick.”
Elena looked at her.
“That doesn’t answer the rest.”
“No.”
Claire picked up a legal pad.
“Let’s separate facts from theories.”
They made two columns.
FACTS:
Dorothy physically struck Elena from behind.
Miles arrived shortly afterward.
Miles received a message from Dorothy saying “It’s done” and “Stick to the story. She fell.”
Miles repeatedly described the incident as a fall despite not witnessing it.
Miles refused to show Elena his second phone.
Dorothy and Miles had both described Elena as emotionally unstable or “not herself.”
Miles admitted a prior plan existed involving Dorothy speaking to Elena about leaving the house.
THEORIES:
Miles knew about the physical attack.
Miles planned the physical attack.
They wanted Elena out before the baby was born.
They were trying to create evidence of instability.
The second phone contained related messages.
Claire tapped the page.
“Never let theory contaminate fact.”
Elena nodded.
That was exactly what Dorothy wanted.
If Elena accused too broadly, one disproved claim could poison everything.
They spent the evening documenting.
At nine, Miles called.
Elena answered.
“How are you feeling?”
“Sore.”
“Baby?”
“Moving.”
His relief sounded genuine.
“Elena, thank God.”
She closed her eyes.
Then he said, “I need my phone.”
There it was.
“Why?”
“It has work authentication.”
“You have the other one.”
“That’s not the point.”
“You can retrieve necessary work information remotely.”
A pause.
“Claire told you that?”
“No.”
“You don’t know my systems.”
“I know your company has device management.”
Silence.
Elena had served on the technology committee of a nonprofit with Miles.
He knew she knew.
“I need the phone.”
“You’ll get it after the relevant message is preserved.”
“Elena, it’s my property.”
“It landed beside me while your mother’s confession was on the screen.”
“It is not a confession.”
“Then why are you afraid of me having it?”
“I’m not afraid.”
“You sound afraid.”
Miles exhaled.
“This is getting out of control.”
“No. It was out of control when your mother kicked me.”
He ended the call five minutes later.
At midnight, Elena woke because the baby moved strongly.
She placed her palm over the spot.
“Hey.”
For a moment, everything else disappeared.
Her son.
Alive.
Inside her.
Then she remembered the box of baby clothes scattering down the staircase.
One of the tiny sleepers had landed under Miles’s shoe.
She wondered who had picked it up.
At breakfast, Claire asked an odd question.
“Does Miles always carry two phones?”
“For maybe a year.”
“Company-issued?”
“I assumed.”
“Can we verify?”
Elena searched the company’s device policy through a public employee portal.
Miles’s firm used a secure app on personal devices.
Senior executives were not automatically issued second phones.
Elena stared.
“So what is the black phone?”
Claire said, “Don’t guess.”
Elena nodded.
But memory had already shifted.
Three months earlier, they drove to Cape Cod.
Miles stopped for coffee and left the black phone in the car.
It rang.
The screen showed no contact name.
Only a number.
When he returned, Elena mentioned it.
Miles said, “Spam.”
He deleted the call without listening to voicemail.
Another memory surfaced.
Dorothy once walked into their kitchen and asked Miles, “Did you bring the other line?”
When Elena looked up, Dorothy immediately changed the subject.
At the time, Elena assumed business.
Now she understood how much of marriage depended on benign assumptions.
People did not verify every explanation from someone they loved.
Trust made life possible.
It also created blind spots.
Elena turned toward Claire.
“I need to know what that second phone is.”
Claire nodded.
“Then we find out without touching something we’re not legally entitled to access.”
Elena looked at her.
“How?”
Claire smiled faintly.
May you like
“Start with the bill.”
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