Chapter 4 - The First Door Rachel Closed
Lily was discharged the following afternoon.
Daniel expected Rachel to bring her back to their house in Apex.
Rachel did not.
She took Lily to her older sister Claire’s townhouse twenty minutes away.
Daniel followed them into the hospital parking garage.
“You’re taking my daughter?”
“Our daughter.”
“You don’t get to decide this by yourself.”
Rachel buckled Lily into the back seat while Claire stood nearby.
“I’m not keeping her from you.”
“You’re leaving our house.”
“You shoved me into a chair while she was sleeping ten feet away.”
Daniel lowered his voice.
“And you hit me.”
“Yes.”
Rachel did not look away.
“I did. After you grabbed me twice. I told the hospital exactly what happened.”
That unsettled him.
Daniel preferred arguments in which guilt could be redistributed until nobody remained clearly responsible.
Rachel had spent eleven years helping him do that.
Not this time.
The next morning, the preschool director called.
Rachel had requested the previous two months of pickup records.
Margaret had collected Lily nine times.
Rachel knew about four.
Five had happened without her knowledge.
Most were Wednesdays.
Daniel worked from home Wednesdays.
When Rachel confronted him by phone, he admitted he had authorized the arrangement.
“Mom was helping.”
“Why hide it?”
“I didn’t hide anything.”
“You told me Lily was at school.”
“Because I knew you’d turn it into this.”
“This?”
“A fight about my mother.”
Rachel closed her eyes.
Daniel had answered the wrong question.
Not why had Margaret picked Lily up.
Why had Daniel decided Rachel shouldn’t know?
Rachel asked the preschool director one more thing.
“Did Margaret ever request anything besides pickup access?”
The woman hesitated.
“There were a few conversations.”
“About what?”
“I’d rather send you copies of the communications.”
An email arrived ten minutes later.
Margaret had repeatedly asked for duplicates of Lily’s minor incident reports.
A scraped knee.
A forgotten water bottle.
One afternoon when Rachel had arrived twelve minutes late because of an accident on I-40.
Every request included the same explanation.
Daniel wants this for his records.
Rachel read the sentence twice.
Then a third time.
May you like
Daniel had not merely allowed Margaret into their childcare routine.
Together, they had been keeping records on Rachel.
