Chapter 3
He stared.
“The baby is fine.”
“You haven’t even asked what Grace saw.”
He looked at her.
“Fine. What did you see?”
Grace answered slowly.
“I came down the hall because Nora was crying differently.”
“What does that mean?”
“It was a distressed cry.”
Diane laughed bitterly.
“Now she diagnoses crying?”
Grace continued.
“The bathroom door was mostly closed.”
“I pushed it open.”
“Nora was in the tub.”
“Your mother was not in the room.”
Michael interrupted.
“She said she stepped out.”
Grace nodded.
“I looked into the hallway before entering.”
“No one was there.”
Diane shouted:
“You’re lying.”
Grace didn’t react.
“The water was several inches deep.”
“Nora was on her back.”
“One side of her face was close to the water.”
I couldn’t breathe.
Grace continued.
“I picked her up immediately.”
“Then Diane came from the bedroom.”
Not the hallway.
The bedroom.
Across from the bathroom.
Diane’s face changed.
Only slightly.
But I saw it.
“So you weren’t getting a towel.”
I whispered.
She stared at me.
“I went to answer a message.”
My mouth opened.
“You left a newborn alone in water to answer a message?”
“It was seconds.”
Grace pointed toward the phone.
“Then what message?”
Silence.
The phone had been recording beside the sink.
Diane couldn’t have been answering it.
Michael looked at her.
“Mom?”
She started crying.
It happened instantly.
Real tears.
Or tears convincing enough to look real.
“I made a mistake.”
She covered her mouth.
“I’m sorry.”
Michael went to her.
Of course he did.
He put one arm around her.
“It’s okay.”
I stared at them.
May you like
No.
It wasn’t.
