Chapter 2 - The Story Lily Was Forced to Learn
At the pediatric emergency department in Columbus, Caleb tried to control the story before Emily could finish telling it.
“My wife panics,” he told the nurse. “She works night shifts and barely sleeps. I gave Lily a child-safe sleep aid because we’ve all been exhausted.”
Emily placed the brown bottle in a plastic evidence bag the charge nurse had provided.
“The label was removed.”
Caleb sighed as though she had embarrassed him at a dinner party.
“Because my mother gave it to us in another container.”
“Your mother gave you medicine for our daughter?”
He looked away.
The doctor ordered bloodwork and asked Caleb to wait outside. A hospital social worker named Denise sat beside Lily with crayons and a picture book. She never pushed. She let Lily choose the chair, the color, and whether Emily stayed close.
Lily chose purple.
“What happens during the bathroom game?” Denise asked gently.
Lily colored outside the lines.
“Daddy gives me sleepy juice.”
Emily gripped the edge of her chair.
“Then what?”
“I wait for the timer.”
“And after the timer?”
Lily’s mouth trembled.
“I practice the Mommy story.”
Denise stopped writing.
“What is the Mommy story?”
Lily looked at Emily with terrified eyes.
“I’m not supposed to tell you.”
Emily knelt beside her.
“You will never be in trouble for telling the truth.”
Lily began to cry.
“Daddy says I have to tell the lady you leave me alone. And you yell. And I’m scared when you come home.”
Emily felt the room tilt.
Caleb had not been using the nightly routine simply to make Lily sleep.
He had been drugging her, waiting until she was confused and exhausted, then teaching her what to say.
The blood test later confirmed that Lily had been given a sedating medication that had never been prescribed to her. The doctor could not determine how many times she had received it, but the concentration was high enough to require overnight observation.
Caleb’s mother, Janice, arrived before midnight carrying a leather purse and righteous anger.
“Emily, stop this,” she said in the hallway. “You’re destroying your marriage over a harmless bedtime routine.”
Emily stared at her.
“Caleb said the bottle came from you.”
Janice’s expression changed for less than a second.
Then she smiled.
“My son has always protected you. You should think carefully before making accusations that could cost you your child.”
Emily understood the threat.
May you like
This was bigger than Caleb.
His mother had known.
