Chapter 7: The Question He Asked Her
Daniel didn't respond to that immediately.
He set the phone on the bed between us, speaker facing up, and waited.
"Daniel, are you there?"
"I'm here, Mom."
"Good.
I need you to listen to me with an open mind.
What happened yesterday—"
"I have one question for you," he said.
"Just one.
And I need you to answer it honestly."
A pause.
"All right."
"Do you think what you did was wrong?"
Silence.
Not the silence of someone thinking.
The silence of someone deciding how to answer.
"I think," she said carefully, "that I acted out of love for your sister.
Renata has suffered for years.
You know that.
And your wife has two healthy babies when Renata has none.
I saw an opportunity to—"
"That's not what I asked you," Daniel said.
"I asked if you think what you did was wrong."
"I think the situation is more complicated than—"
"You tampered with a hospital identification band on a newborn baby." His voice was quiet.
Completely controlled.
"You attempted to remove my daughter from a delivery room and give her to someone else without the consent of her mother, her father, or any medical authority.
You used private information obtained through illegal means to intimidate my wife on the day she gave birth." He paused.
"Do you think that was wrong?"
Another silence.
"I think," she said, "that you are letting her control how you see this."
Daniel looked at me.
I said nothing.
"Mom," he said.
"I'm going to give you one more chance to answer the question."
"I did what I did because I love your sister."
"That's the last thing you're going to say to me for a while." He reached over and picked up the phone.
"I need time.
Don't call this number again until I reach out to you first."
"Daniel, if you hang up this phone—"
"Goodbye, Mom."
He ended the call.
He set the phone face-down on the tray table and sat very still for a moment.
Eli stirred in the chair by the window.
"Dad?"
"Hey, bud.
Go back to sleep."
"Was that Grandma?"
"Yes."
"Is she still in trouble?"
Daniel looked at his son.
"Yeah.
She's still in trouble."
Eli considered this.
Then he pulled his jacket back up around his shoulders and closed his eyes.
I watched Daniel.
He was staring at the phone like it was something he didn't recognize.
"She didn't answer," I said.
"No."
"That's your answer."
"I know." He exhaled slowly.
"I've known for a long time, actually.
I just kept finding reasons not to look at it directly."
I didn't say anything to that.
There was nothing useful to say.
"The investigator," he said.
"She paid someone to access sealed medical records.
That's not just a moral problem."
"No," I said.
"It isn't."
"I want to talk to someone.
A lawyer.
Find out what the actual legal exposure is — for her and for whoever she hired."
"You want to pursue it?"
He looked at me.
"She came into a delivery room and tried to take our child.
And she used information she obtained illegally to try to control you." He said it plainly, without heat.
"Yes.
I want to pursue it."
"That will be hard."
"I know."
"She's your mother."
"I know that too." He stood and walked to the bassinet.
Looked down at both girls for a long moment.
"But they're my daughters."
He reached in and adjusted the blanket on the one closest to him.
A small, careful gesture.
"What are their names?" Eli asked from the chair.
He was watching his father with his chin on his knees.
Daniel looked at me.
We had been arguing about names for three weeks.
Two lists on the refrigerator, neither of us fully committed.
"We haven't decided yet," I said.
"You should decide soon," Eli said, with the authority of a six-year-old who had been waiting patiently.
"They need names."
Daniel almost smiled.
The first time since yesterday.
"He's right," he said.
"He usually is."
The moment held for a second — quiet, almost ordinary — and then my phone buzzed on the table.
A message from a number I didn't recognize.
Different from the one Renata had used.
*You made a mistake meeting with my daughter this morning.
Give back what she took from you, or I will make sure Daniel knows everything.
Not just the name.
Everything.*
I read it twice.
May you like
Then I looked up at Daniel.
"She knows I met with Renata," I said.
