My blood ran cold.
When Karen came out, she looked grave. “Mrs. Harper, a CPS worker and a police officer are on their way. The physician has concerns about neglect at minimum.”
“Neglect,” I repeated, numb.
She gave a slight nod. “Possibly more. We don’t know yet.”
Megan emerged from the room a few minutes later, eyes swollen and face streaked with tears. The moment she saw me, she rushed forward.
“I didn’t know,” she said, gripping my arms. “I swear to God, I didn’t know.”
“Then how did this happen?” I asked.
She opened her mouth, but Daniel came out behind her.
“Megan,” he said sharply.
She flinched.
Actually flinched.
It was small. Quick. The kind of thing many people would miss.
I didn’t.
And once I saw it, suddenly I couldn’t stop seeing all the little things from the past month.
The way Megan apologized for everything.
The way Daniel answered questions for her.
The way she always looked over at him before speaking.
The bruise I’d once noticed on her wrist that she said came from carrying groceries.
The fact that she had stopped texting me as often after Noah was born.
Dr. Patel eventually allowed us to see Noah one at a time. I went first. He was asleep now, a tiny bandage around his thigh, his breathing soft and even. Seeing him peaceful should have comforted me.
Instead, I cried harder.
I touched his little hand. “I’m sorry,” I whispered. “I’m so sorry.”
When I came out, Daniel was waiting. His face was drawn and gray.
“Mom,” he said.
I looked at him and saw my son—the boy I had raised alone after his father died when Daniel was fourteen, the young man I had worked double shifts to send to college, the adult I still loved despite everything.
Then I saw the baby in that hospital bed.
And I said, “What aren’t you telling me?”
His face hardened instantly. “It was an accident.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
“What kind of accident leaves a strand wrapped around your baby’s leg for hours?”
He looked away.
I stepped closer. “Did Megan do this?”
He snapped his eyes back to mine. “No.”
“Did you?”
His mouth opened in outrage. “Of course not.”
“Then tell me the truth.”
Instead, he said the one thing that guaranteed I would never trust him again.
“You need to stay out of this.”
