Chapter 4 - THE FIRST PERSON ELENA CALLED WASN’T HER HUSBAND
Elena called her older sister, Rachel.
Rachel lived forty minutes away in Dayton and arrived before midnight.
She walked into the postpartum room, saw Elena’s face, and began crying.
Elena said:
“Don’t.”
Rachel wiped her cheeks.
“Okay.”
Then she sat.
That was one reason Elena loved her.
Rachel knew how to stay without turning somebody else’s crisis into her performance.
Samuel was brought in an hour later.
He was wrapped in a striped hospital blanket.
Elena held him carefully.
He had Preston’s mouth.
That hurt unexpectedly.
Rachel noticed.
“You don’t have to figure out your marriage tonight.”
Elena looked at her.
“I think he tried to make me look crazy.”
Rachel did not immediately agree.
“What happened?”
Elena told her.
The canceled C-section.
Khloe.
The labor.
Preston grabbing her.
The demand to turn down the epidural.
Dr. Pierce saying the chart showed Elena had canceled surgery herself.
Rachel’s expression became still.
“Do you have screenshots?”
“Yes.”
“Good.”
Elena opened her phone.
The original scheduling confirmation remained in her portal messages.
So did the later change.
One message said:
Per patient request after counseling, planned cesarean canceled. Patient wishes trial of labor.
Elena read it aloud.
Rachel asked:
“Did you ever send anything saying that?”
“No.”
“Call anybody?”
“No.”
“Sign anything?”
“No.”
Elena stopped.
There had been one conversation.
With Preston.
He had asked:
“If labor starts before surgery, would you at least try?”
Elena had answered:
“If everything is safe, I’ll listen to Pierce.”
That was not consent to cancel anything.
But Preston loved converting possibilities into decisions.
Rachel asked:
“Who had access to your chart?”
“I don’t know.”
That was not something Elena could investigate herself.
So the next morning, she requested formally that the hospital preserve her electronic medical record audit trail.
Dr. Pierce helped route the request through patient relations.
Elena also asked that Preston no longer receive medical information as her spouse unless she specifically authorized it.
Signing that form made her hand tremble.
For eight years, Preston had been her emergency contact.
Now she was removing him while their son slept against her chest.
Preston called the room twice.
Elena declined.
Then he sent a message.
Please don’t let what happened during a dangerous labor turn me into a monster.
Elena read it.
Then another.
Khloe is terrified you’re going to destroy her career because you never liked her.
Not:
How are you?
Not:
How is Samuel?
Khloe.
Even after everything.
Elena handed the phone to Rachel.
Her sister read both messages.
Then said:
“This isn’t about an intern anymore.”
Elena looked at Samuel.
May you like
“No.”
She had begun to think it never had been.
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