Chapter 3 - THE VIDEO
Dr. Collins did not react with horror.
She reacted with precision.
“Did you hurt your baby?”
“No.”
“Then tell me what the video shows.”
My throat tightened.
Ryan had played it for me three weeks earlier.
I was standing in our kitchen at two in the morning.
Barefoot.
Disoriented.
Holding a knife.
My hands rested against my stomach while I cried.
The video cut before anything happened.
Ryan told me I had threatened to cut the baby out.
I had no memory of it.
“He said I sleepwalked.”
Dr. Collins asked, “Had you taken the white pill?”
“Yes.”
“Every time you lost time?”
I thought about the gaps.
Waking in the bathtub with cold water running.
Finding blood on my nightgown.
Discovering the front door open.
Ryan telling me I had screamed at neighbors.
“Yes.”
The nurse took my phone and placed it inside an evidence bag.
Dr. Collins called hospital social services and ordered a toxicology screen.
I watched her work.
No hesitation.
No disbelief.
“Why would he drug me?”
She did not answer for him.
“Why do you think?”
I looked down at my wedding ring.
“Because he wanted everyone to think I was dangerous.”
“To whom?”
“The baby.”
A knock sounded at the door.
Ryan’s voice came from the hallway.
“Emily, I’m worried about you.”
The nurse looked disgusted.
Dr. Collins stayed calm.
“Security is taking him downstairs.”
Ryan raised his voice.
“She needs me!”
I flinched.
Dr. Collins noticed.
“Emily, has he ever strangled you?”
I hesitated.
Her eyes stayed on mine.
“Even once.”
I touched the faint yellow bruising beneath my jaw.
“Three times.”
The nurse stopped writing.
“Has he threatened to kill you?”
“He says he doesn’t need to.”
Dr. Collins waited.
“He says no one will believe me after they see the recordings.”
The fetal monitor emitted a sudden alarm.
The baby’s heartbeat slowed.
Dr. Collins moved instantly.
She adjusted the monitor, turned me onto my side, and called for oxygen.
The nurse fitted a mask over my face.
The heartbeat recovered after several terrifying seconds.
Dr. Collins checked my blood pressure again.
“Severe range.”
A technician entered with emergency laboratory results.
Dr. Collins read them.
Her face hardened.
“We need to admit you now.”
Ryan shouted from farther down the hall.
“You cannot keep my wife!”
A struggle followed.
Then silence.
Dr. Collins ordered magnesium sulfate, continuous fetal monitoring, and an ultrasound.
The nurse began inserting an IV.
I looked at the door.
“He’ll come back.”
“We will place a security alert on your chart.”
“He knows people here.”
Dr. Collins paused.
“What people?”
“Dr. Alan Mercer.”
She looked up.
The name meant something to her.
“He is the obstetrician who signed your earlier notes.”
“Ryan chose him.”
Dr. Collins opened the electronic chart.
Several records had been modified.
Bruising entries removed.
Blood pressure readings changed.
One emergency visit had disappeared entirely.
She searched the audit history.
The edits were made under Dr. Mercer’s login.
But the time stamps showed something worse.
The changes happened that morning.
While I was inside the examination room.
Dr. Collins looked toward the hallway camera.
“Mercer knows you’re here.”
May you like
The lights flickered.
Then every screen in the room went black.
