Chapter 8 - THE CALL THEY COULD NOT TAKE BACK
The sound of sirens came from somewhere beyond the subdivision.
Grant heard them before Teresa did.
He crossed the patio and looked through the side gate.
“Are they coming here?”
Teresa grabbed the loan papers and shoved them into her purse.
“Get her inside.”
“You said the bank wouldn’t call anyone.”
“I said they might freeze the account.”
The sirens grew louder.
Grant began pulling dirt away from my chest with both hands.
Teresa seized his shoulder.
“Leave her. We can say she did this herself.”
He stared at her.
“No one buries herself up to the neck.”
“She’s unstable. She’s been depressed since the pregnancy.”
I had never been diagnosed with depression. Teresa knew that, but she also knew how easily a pregnant woman’s fear could be turned into a story about hormones.
Grant dug faster.
My right arm came free. Pain burned from my shoulder to my fingertips.
The first police cruiser stopped in front of the house.
A second vehicle followed, then an ambulance.
Jasmine had followed our safety plan.
When I missed the Wednesday appointment and failed to answer, she called my sister Rachel. Rachel contacted the clinic’s social worker, who confirmed that I had also missed a fetal-monitoring appointment.
The lender’s coercion report gave them the address and a second reason to act.
Teresa ran toward her SUV.
Grant stood between the trench and the gate, unable to decide whether to help me or protect himself.
“Grant,” I said.
He looked down.
“Dig.”
He dropped to his knees.
By the time officers entered the yard, he had uncovered my shoulders and one side of my belly.
He raised his hands when they ordered him back.
Teresa reached the driveway before another officer stopped her.
The paramedics lifted me onto a rigid board. As they placed an oxygen mask over my face, I saw Grant sitting in the grass with mud on his hands.
He kept repeating the same sentence.
“My mother said the loan would save everyone.”
Teresa heard him.
May you like
She turned toward her son and said, “Then you should have made your wife sign it.”
That answer ended any illusion that she intended to protect him.
