“Who are you calling?”
“Dad.”
“Meg, wait.”
“No.”
“Megan.”
She was already dialing.
Our father answered immediately.
Megan walked toward the window.
“I’m at the hospital with Claire.”
A pause.
“The baby’s okay right now. They’re trying to stop contractions.”
Another pause.
Then Megan looked directly at my arm.
Dad must have asked something, because her voice went flat.
“Yes.”
She listened.
“Yes, he put his hands on her.”
My stomach tightened again.
Not from a contraction that time.
Dad was silent long enough that Megan checked the screen.
Then his voice came faintly through the phone.
I couldn’t hear every word.
Only the last question.
“Did Eric put his hands on her?”
Megan said, “Yes.”
Dad hung up.
I stared at her.
“That’s it?”
“You know Dad.”
Unfortunately, I did.
My father was not a loud man.
He became quieter when he was angry.
Forty minutes later, Megan’s phone rang.
She put it on speaker.
“Dad?”
“Claire.”
“I’m here.”
“You’re not going home with him tonight.”
My throat tightened.
“Dad—”
“No.”
“I need clothes. The baby’s things are there. My medication—”
“I’m handling it.”
“What does that mean?”
“I changed the locks.”
I closed my eyes.
Of course he had.
“Dad, Eric lives there too.”
“He can discuss that with me, your attorney, and whoever else becomes necessary. He is not walking into that house tonight while you are in a hospital bed because of what he did.”
“Dad—”
“I’m not asking you to make a decision about your marriage today.”
His voice softened.
“But I am making sure you don’t have to make one while you’re scared.”
That silenced me.
Then someone knocked lightly on the hospital-room door.
A nurse stepped inside.
She looked from me to Megan.
“Claire?”
“Yes?”
“There’s a police officer here who would like to speak with you.”
I felt cold.
“Why?”
Megan already knew.
“Because Dana told the paramedics exactly what she saw.”
I stared at her.
The nurse added gently, “She gave a statement before she left.”
That was the moment something shifted.
