CHAPTER 2:
\n\u201cYou moved the water,\u201d I whispered, the words tasting like ash in my mouth.<\/p>\n
Eleanor scoffed, taking a delicate sip of her wine. \u201cShe needs to learn resilience, David. I raised you and your sister without collapsing on the furniture like a Victorian invalid. A house with a newborn cannot fall into ruin. I told her she could have a drink when the roast was in the oven.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s sick!\u201d I screamed, the sound tearing out of me. I scrambled for Clara\u2019s pockets, looking for her phone to call 911. It wasn\u2019t there.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere is her phone, Mom?\u201d<\/p>\n
Eleanor casually gestured toward the kitchen with her fork. \u201cOn top of the refrigerator. She was too distracted by it. I told her, \u2018You need to learn how to be a mother and a wife before you worry about texting your little friends.\u2019 She threw a tantrum and decided to take a nap.\u201d<\/p>\n
I left Clara\u2019s side just long enough to sprint into the kitchen. The sink was overflowing with heavy cast-iron pots. The floor was slick with grease. Eleanor hadn\u2019t just made Clara cook; she had forced my wife, recovering from a traumatic birth, to prepare a massive, labor-intensive feast while denying her basic sustenance. I grabbed Clara\u2019s phone from the top of the fridge. The screen was cracked.<\/p>\n
When I rushed back, Clara\u2019s eyelids fluttered. \u201cDavid\u2026\u201d she breathed, her voice barely a dry rasp. \u201cHelp\u2026 Leo\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m here, baby. I\u2019m taking you to the hospital.\u201d<\/p>\n
I dialed 911, my hands shaking so violently I dropped the phone twice. I strapped the hysterical Leo to my chest in his carrier, grabbed a heavy winter blanket, and wrapped Clara in it, lifting her into my arms. She weighed almost nothing.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere do you think you are going?\u201d Eleanor demanded, finally standing up, her chair scraping harshly against the hardwood. \u201cYou are not taking my grandson out in this rain because this girl is throwing a pity party.\u201d<\/p>\n
I didn\u2019t yell. I didn\u2019t argue. I looked at her with a dead, hollow stare. \u201cIf she dies, I will spend the rest of my life making sure you rot in a cell.\u201d<\/p>\n
I kicked the front door open, leaving her standing amidst the wreckage of her own making.<\/p>\n
The drive to the ER was a blur of flashing hazards and relentless rain. By the time I carried Clara through the sliding glass doors of Chicago General, she was completely unresponsive. A team of nurses swarmed us with a gurney, tearing her from my arms.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat happened?\u201d a doctor barked, shining a penlight into Clara\u2019s unresponsive eyes.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s four weeks postpartum. She hasn\u2019t eaten or drank all day. She was forced to cook. I think she\u2019s severely dehydrated,\u201d I rambled, bouncing Leo on my chest as the baby finally began to exhaust himself into a whimpering sleep.<\/p>\n
They wheeled her through double doors, leaving me standing in the blinding fluorescent light of the waiting room, covered in my wife\u2019s cold sweat.<\/p>\n
Thirty minutes later, the attending physician walked out. His face was grim.<\/p>\n
\u201cMr. Miller? Your wife is in critical condition. She\u2019s suffering from severe hypoglycemia and catastrophic dehydration. On top of that, her postpartum stitches are severely infected. Her fever is spiking at 104 degrees. She\u2019s hovering on the edge of a coma.\u201d<\/p>\n
The room tilted. I grabbed the edge of the reception desk to stay upright.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you had come home thirty minutes later,\u201d the doctor said, his voice dropping an octave, \u201cwe would be having a very different, much more tragic conversation.\u201d<\/p>\n
I closed my eyes, a silent sob wracking my chest. But before I could even process the horror of how close I came to losing my wife, the automatic doors of the ER slid open again.<\/p>\n
Two uniformed police officers walked in, accompanied by a woman wearing a badge that read Child Protective Services.<\/p>\n
They walked directly toward me.<\/p>\n
\u201cDavid Miller?\u201d the taller officer asked, resting his hand on his utility belt. \u201cWe received an emergency call from a family member. We have a report of child endangerment, severe domestic neglect, and kidnapping.\u201d<\/p>\n
I stared at them, the world stopping on its axis. Eleanor hadn\u2019t just stayed in the apartment. She had made a preemptive strike.
\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
CHAPTER 2: \u201cYou moved the water,\u201d I whispered, the words tasting like ash in my mouth. Eleanor scoffed, taking a delicate sip of her wine. \u201cShe needs to learn resilience, … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12590,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-family-drama-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/redditlovers.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/redditlovers.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/redditlovers.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redditlovers.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redditlovers.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12586"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/redditlovers.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12586\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12594,"href":"https:\/\/redditlovers.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12586\/revisions\/12594"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redditlovers.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/redditlovers.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redditlovers.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redditlovers.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}