Chapter 4 - THE HOUSE LILY DIDN’T GO BACK TO
Lily stayed in the hospital for several days.
Her doctors were cautiously optimistic after treatment, but she needed monitoring and follow-up.
I did not take her back to our house immediately.
Daniel hated that decision.
“My mother isn’t there.”
“That isn’t the only issue.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means you grabbed me in the ER while accusing me of harming our daughter.”
“I said I was sorry.”
“You said you panicked.”
“I did.”
“That explains it. It doesn’t repair it.”
I moved temporarily into my sister Megan’s guest room in Tempe.
Daniel saw Lily at the hospital and then through arrangements we made while things settled.
Patricia saw nobody.
A temporary no-contact restriction involving Lily was put in place while authorities investigated.
Patricia called Daniel constantly.
He stopped answering after the first day.
That did not mean he suddenly sided with me.
It meant he was frightened.
Our first serious argument happened in the hospital parking garage.
“You think my mother intentionally hurt Lily.”
“I think she intentionally put those magnets there.”
“That’s different.”
“Is it?”
“Yes.”
He looked sick saying it.
“What are you arguing, Daniel? That she created a dangerous situation but didn’t expect Lily to get hurt?”
“I don’t know.”
“Neither do I.”
That was exactly the problem.
I contacted our pediatrician.
Not to accuse Patricia.
To ask whether there were prior notes involving her.
There were.
Three months earlier, Patricia had called the office saying Lily was “frequently unsupervised while Rachel works.”
The pediatrician documented it but did not consider it urgent because Lily appeared healthy and because Patricia’s concern sounded general.
I stared at the note.
“She called about me?”
The nurse nodded.
“There were two calls.”
The second claimed Lily had been left alone in the backyard.
That had never happened.
Daniel remembered the day.
I was on a work call.
Lily was playing on our covered patio.
Daniel was in the kitchen ten feet away.
Patricia had visited and apparently decided that counted as being unsupervised.
I asked the nurse:
“Was anyone else contacted?”
“No.”
Not child services.
Not police.
Just a medical chart.
A record.
I thought about that word.
Record.
Patricia had been making one.
Then Megan asked the question I should have asked months earlier.
“Why?”
I had no answer.
Until I remembered the argument Patricia and I had in April.
Daniel’s company had offered him a promotion.
Phoenix-based.
More money.
More travel.
At the same time, my employer offered me a supervisory role that could eventually transfer to Seattle.
I mentioned, casually, that if Daniel’s travel became unbearable, I might take Lily to Washington for the summer and work near my sister-in-law.
Patricia overheard.
She became furious.
“You’re not taking my granddaughter across the country.”
I laughed because I thought she was being dramatic.
“I didn’t say I was moving.”
“You always say things casually before you do them.”
May you like
I forgot the argument.
Patricia apparently did not.
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