Chapter 6 - The InterviewDr. Merrin sat beside the bed with his legs crossed and his pen resting lightly against a clipboard.
He was older than Leah expected, with gentle eyes and silver hair. Everything about him seemed designed to calm people into saying too much.
“Leah,” he began, “do you understand why I’ve been asked to speak with you?”
“Yes.”
“And why is that?”
“Because my mother-in-law is trying to build a case that I’m unstable so she can take my son.”
Kendra’s pen moved.
Dr. Merrin did not react.
“Do you have evidence of that?”
“My baby was removed from my room without my consent. He was brought back wearing a hat with a different name.”
“That must have been frightening.”
“It was not just frightening. It was wrong.”
“Do you believe Mrs. Carver intends to harm the baby?”
Leah heard the trap.
“No,” she said. “I believe she intends to remove him from me and raise him under her control.”
“Why would she do that?”
Leah almost laughed. There was no short answer for a lifetime of women like Doreen. Women who believed sons were possessions. Women who treated daughters-in-law as temporary vessels. Women who smiled at baby showers while making plans behind locked doors.
“She told people the nursery at her house was more appropriate than ours,” Leah said. “She chose my doctor. She chose this hospital. She tried to choose my son’s name. She questioned my mental state before he was born. And today, he disappeared.”
Dr. Merrin watched her carefully.
“Do you feel capable of caring for Jonah?”
“Yes.”
“Do you have thoughts of hurting yourself?”
“No.”
“Hurting him?”
Leah’s voice shook for the first time. “Never.”
Kendra wrote anyway.
Dr. Merrin glanced toward the bassinet, where Jonah slept.
“May I ask about your own mother?”
“She lives in Oregon. I called her.”
“Has she responded?”
“No.”
“So currently, your only local support is your husband’s family.”
“My support is not local, but it exists.”
“Leah, support matters. Courts and hospitals look at stability.”
“There’s no court.”
No one answered.
The silence told her there might be.
Dr. Merrin continued for twenty minutes. He asked about sleep. Appetite. Childhood. Marriage. Conflict. Fear. Leah answered carefully, truthfully, but without handing them words they could twist.
When he finally stood, he said, “I’ll review the chart.”
Leah’s heart sank.
The chart was already poisoned.
After he left, Mae followed him into the hallway.
Leah could hear only fragments.
“Unauthorized removal…”
“…not clinically justified…”
“…patient is coherent…”
Kendra interrupted. “Nurse Rowland, you are not assigned to this case.”
Mae’s voice sharpened. “Then assign me.”
The voices moved away.
Nathan arrived near dinner, carrying flowers this time. Yellow roses. Leah hated yellow roses. Doreen knew that.
He set them on the table.
“Mom thinks we should all reset.”
Leah laughed once.
He winced. “I know today was hard.”
“Hard? Nathan, your mother took my baby.”
“She made a mistake.”
“She renamed him.”
“It was a hat.”
“She is trying to have me declared unfit.”
Nathan sat down and lowered his voice. “Leah, nobody wants to take Jonah forever.”
There it was.
Not nobody wants to take Jonah.
Nobody wants to take Jonah forever.
Leah heard the missing denial.
“For how long, then?” she asked.
Nathan’s eyes filled.
“Mom thinks maybe you need rest. A few weeks. Maybe more. Just until you’re yourself again.”
“I am myself.”
“You don’t sound like yourself.”
“Because the person I married is helping his mother steal our son.”
He flinched as if slapped.
“You don’t understand what she’s done for us,” he said. “The apartment. My job. The hospital bill. The nursery furniture.”
“That money was never a gift, was it? It was a leash.”
Nathan looked away.
Leah’s chest ached. “What did she offer you?”
His silence was worse than an answer.
Then he whispered, “A partnership.”
Leah stared at him.
“In your uncle’s firm?”
“In Carver Development. Mom said once things settled, I could take a senior role.”
“If you helped her.”
“If I protected Jonah.”
Leah’s voice turned flat. “From me.”
Nathan rubbed his eyes. “You’re making this ugly.”
“No, Nathan. I’m finally seeing how ugly it already was.”
At 9:12 p.m., Mae slipped into the room and handed Leah a folded paper.
“Hide this,” she whispered.
Leah opened it beneath the blanket.
It was a photocopy of a draft petition.
Emergency Temporary Guardianship of Minor Child.
Proposed guardian: Doreen Elaine Carver.
Reason: Mother under psychiatric evaluation. Father consents.
Leah looked at Nathan.
He went white.
May you like
And Leah knew.
He had already signed.
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