Chapter 2 - Blue Lights on Christmas
Red and blue lights washed across Sylvia’s perfect Christmas curtains.
Someone in the dining room gasped.
Another guest stood so quickly that his chair fell backward.
David moved toward the front door.
His lawyer instincts were returning.
Anna could see him calculating.
Who had heard what.
What could be denied.
What had already been said.
Sylvia rushed into the kitchen.
“Get her upstairs.”
David stared at his mother.
“What?”
“Before they come in.”
Sylvia pointed at Anna like she was a problem that needed to be hidden.
“Tell them she slipped in the bathroom.”
Anna felt something colder than pain move through her.
David actually considered it.
Only for a second.
But she saw him look toward the staircase.
Then one of his colleagues stepped into the kitchen doorway.
His name was Michael Grant.
He had worked beside David for nearly six years.
Michael was pale.
“I wouldn’t do that.”
David turned.
“Stay out of this.”
Michael’s hand was inside his jacket pocket.
“I saw what happened.”
Sylvia’s expression twisted.
“You saw nothing.”
Michael looked at Anna on the floor.
“I saw enough.”
The doorbell rang.
Then came heavy pounding.
“Emergency medical services.”
David walked toward the door.
Michael moved first and opened it.
Two paramedics rushed inside carrying medical bags.
A police officer followed.
Anna barely remembered the next few minutes.
Questions came rapidly.
How many weeks pregnant?
Thirty-one.
Where was the pain?
Lower abdomen and back.
Was there bleeding?
Yes.
Did she lose consciousness?
No.
Had someone pushed her?
David answered before Anna could.
“She fell.”
The officer looked at him.
“I asked her.”
David smiled automatically.
It was the courtroom smile.
Polite.
Controlled.
Superior.
Anna looked at the officer.
“My mother-in-law shoved me.”
Sylvia exploded.
“That is a lie.”
The paramedic nearest Anna glanced at the officer.
The officer reached for his radio.
David stepped forward.
“You don’t understand.”
The officer raised one hand.
“Sir, back up.”
“I’m an attorney.”
“That doesn’t change the instruction.”
David’s face tightened.
Anna almost smiled.
The paramedics lifted her carefully onto a stretcher.
A contraction hit so hard that she screamed.
The entire room changed.
Whatever social performance Sylvia and David had been trying to maintain disappeared.
One paramedic shouted for oxygen.
The other checked Anna’s blood pressure again.
“We need to move.”
As they carried her toward the door, Anna saw David’s colleagues standing along the hallway.
Nobody looked comfortable anymore.
They were no longer dinner guests.
They were witnesses.
Michael stepped beside the officer.
“I need to show you something.”
David spun around.
“What?”
Michael removed his phone from his pocket.
“I recorded part of it.”
Sylvia lunged toward him.
The officer stepped between them.
David stopped breathing.
Michael unlocked the screen.
“I started recording after Sylvia told Anna that servants don’t sit with the family.”
David stared at him.
“Delete it.”
Michael’s expression changed.
For the first time that night, someone looked David directly in the eyes without fear.
“No.”
Outside, the ambulance doors opened.
May you like
Anna was rolled inside.
The last thing she saw before they closed was her husband standing beneath Christmas lights while a police officer listened to a recording of him refusing to call an ambulance.
