Chapter 3: The Notebook With No Blank Pages
Dr.
Vance opened the notebook carefully, the way you handle something that matters.
Lily had used a purple gel pen.
Each entry had a date at the top, written in the careful block letters of a child who had just learned to take her time.
Beneath each date were two or three sentences and a small drawing.
The first entry read: *Grandma poured Toby's bottle down the sink.
Daddy watched.
I watched from the stairs.*
The drawing showed a stick figure at a sink, a smaller stick figure nearby, and a third figure on a staircase with wide round eyes.
Dr.
Vance turned the page without speaking.
"This is absurd," Julian said.
"She's a child with a crayon and too much imagination."
"Purple gel pen," Lily said.
"Not a crayon."
Dr.
Vance turned another page.
Then another.
He stopped at the fourth entry.
His jaw tightened almost imperceptibly.
"What does that one say?" I asked.
He looked at me.
"It says Grandma told Lily that if she told you what she saw, Toby would have to go away and live somewhere else."
The air left the room.
Lily pressed her face against the teddy bear.
"She said you were too sick to take care of him.
She said they were going to help him go somewhere better."
"Evelyn." My voice came out flat.
"You threatened my daughter."
"I was managing a difficult situation." Evelyn's chin lifted.
"You were falling apart.
Someone had to think clearly."
"You told a seven-year-old that her baby brother would be taken away if she said a word."
"I told her the truth as I understood it."
"The truth." I looked at Julian.
"Is that what you call it?"
He moved toward me.
"You need to lower your voice."
"I need you to answer me." I didn't lower my voice.
"Did you know she said that to Lily?"
Julian's eyes cut to his mother for just a fraction of a second.
That was enough.
The charge nurse arrived.
Dr.
Vance handed her the notebook and the sealed medication bag and spoke to her in a low, steady voice.
She nodded twice, made a note, and left the room with both items.
"Where is she taking that?" Julian demanded.
"It's being logged as part of Toby's medical record," Dr.
Vance said.
"That notebook is my daughter's property."
"Your daughter brought it here voluntarily." Dr.
Vance looked at Lily.
"Is that right?
Nobody told you to bring it?"
Lily shook her head.
"I brought it myself.
I've been carrying it in my jacket every day since the third night.
In case Toby got really sick and nobody believed Mom."
I sat down on the edge of the exam table because there was nothing else to do.
Toby stirred against me and made a small sound, and I pressed my lips to the top of his head.
He was still burning.
Evelyn moved toward the door.
"I'm going to step out and call our family attorney."
"You're welcome to do that," Dr.
Vance said.
"But I'd ask you to remain available.
There will be more questions."
"Questions." Julian laughed once, short and hard.
"You're a pediatrician, not a detective."
"No," Dr.
Vance said.
"But the people I just called are."
Julian went very still.
"What people?"
Dr.
Vance picked up Toby's chart.
"I'm required by law to report suspected harm to a minor.
That call has already been made." He looked up.
"Both of your children are minors, Mr.
Hartley."
Evelyn turned from the doorway.
Her face had changed.
The satisfaction was completely gone.
"You don't understand what you're doing," she said.
"I understand exactly what I'm doing," Dr.
Vance said.
He held the door open for the new nurse coming in with an IV kit.
"Right now, I'm treating a sick baby.
Everything else will follow from that."
Toby whimpered.
I held him closer and didn't look at Julian or Evelyn again.
Lily climbed up onto the chair beside me, tucked herself against my arm, and held the teddy bear across both our laps.
Neither of us said anything.
We didn't need to.
But through the narrow window in the treatment room door, I could see Julian in the hallway.
He had his phone to his ear.
May you like
He was not calling an attorney.
He was calling someone else entirely — and whoever it was, he turned his back to the window the moment he realized I was watching.
