Chapter 3 - The Forty-Eight Hours I Lost
I stared at Dr. Peter Lang's signature until the letters stopped looking like a name.
They became a doorway into forty-eight missing hours.
"He was at our wedding," I said.
Mara nodded.
"He was also listed as one of Dominic's early medical advisers."
I looked at Everett.
"Did you know that?"
"No."
His answer came too quickly to be anything but true.
"Then I want to know exactly what happened while I was unconscious."
Mara closed the folder.
"We need your medical records first."
"Get them."
"Audrey, there are privacy procedures even for you."
"Then bring me the forms."
The door opened before she could answer.
Nora stood there with another nurse and a wheelchair.
Her face was serious.
My heart stopped.
"Which baby?"
"Neither."
She came closer.
"Both are stable."
Air returned to my lungs.
"Then what happened?"
Nora glanced at Everett and Mara.
"I need to speak to Ms. Audrey privately about a clinical matter."
Everett immediately moved toward the door.
Mara followed.
"Stay," I said.
Nora looked at me.
"They are my legal support and family."
She nodded.
Then she closed the door behind the other nurse.
"There is something I should have told you earlier."
The sentence made every muscle in my body tighten.
"About the twins?"
"About the night you were transferred from surgery."
I said nothing.
Nora took a slow breath.
"I was on duty when you arrived in recovery after the emergency delivery."
I remembered almost none of it.
There were pieces.
Bright lights.
Someone asking me to count backward.
A pressure mask over my face.
Dominic standing near a doorway with blood on his shirt cuff.
Then nothing.
"You were unstable," Nora continued.
"Your blood pressure dropped twice."
"I know."
"You also had significant blood loss."
I nodded.
"At approximately three in the morning, your husband asked whether he could make decisions for the babies if you remained unconscious."
Everett's expression changed.
"What decisions?"
"He asked about transferring them."
My fingers curled around the blanket.
"Where?"
"He did not specify at first."
Nora looked directly at me.
"He said Saint Aurelia was too expensive."
A strange laugh escaped me.
Dominic had known enough about this hospital to complain about its price but not enough to know who owned it.
"Did he try to move them?"
"He asked several times."
"Could he have?"
"Not safely."
"That wasn't my question."
Nora paused.
"Legally, as their father, he had some authority if you were incapacitated."
Cold spread through my chest.
"But?"
"The attending neonatologist refused."
I closed my eyes for one second.
"Why?"
"Because both babies were too unstable for a nonessential transfer."
Everett leaned on his cane.
"Who was the attending physician?"
"Dr. Selena Hart."
"I want to speak with her."
Nora nodded.
"She is in the unit now."
I opened my eyes.
"What else?"
Nora's face told me there was more.
"Dominic asked whether your access to the babies could be restricted once you woke up."
I stared at her.
"My access?"
"He claimed you had a history of severe anxiety and unpredictable behavior."
Everett swore under his breath.
I barely heard him.
"I don't have a history of severe anxiety."
"I know."
"How do you know?"
"Your chart."
"Did anyone believe him?"
"The request was noted."
Nora's voice tightened.
"But there was no clinical basis to act on it."
I thought about the divorce agreement.
Dominic had not merely prepared to leave me.
He had prepared a story about why I should not be trusted with my own children.
"Why didn't you tell me this when I woke up?"
Nora looked ashamed.
"Because your recovery team wanted to avoid overwhelming you, and because none of his requests were granted."
"That was not their decision to make."
"I agree."
Her answer was immediate.
The honesty softened my anger by one degree.
"You said there was something you should have told me earlier."
"There is one more thing."
Nora reached into the pocket of her scrub jacket and removed her phone.
"I recorded part of a conversation."
Mara stepped forward.
"Without his knowledge?"
Nora nodded.
"This state allows one-party consent, and I was part of the conversation."
Mara's expression remained neutral, but I could see interest sharpen behind her eyes.
"Why did you record it?"
Nora looked at me.
"Because something felt wrong."
She unlocked the phone.
"He kept asking me to repeat things I had already explained."
"What things?"
"Whether you were likely to remember the hours before surgery."
A chill ran through me.
"Play it."
Nora pressed the screen.
Dominic's voice filled the room.
It sounded distant and slightly muffled, but unmistakable.
"She's sedated, right?"
Nora's recorded voice answered.
"She is receiving medication and is not conscious at the moment."
"So she cannot sign anything?"
There was a pause.
"No, sir."
"What if a doctor says she was lucid earlier?"
"I don't understand."
"I'm asking hypothetically."
Nora's recorded voice became firmer.
"If you are asking whether someone can sign legal documents while unconscious, the answer is no."
Dominic laughed softly on the recording.
"You're very literal."
The audio ended.
No one moved.
Mara broke the silence.
"Send me a copy."
Nora looked at me first.
I nodded.
"Please."
She transferred the file.
Then she turned toward me.
"There is also a security camera outside the recovery unit."
Mara was already taking notes.
"How long is footage retained?"
"Usually thirty days."
"Preserve it now."
Everett's voice was hard.
Nora hesitated.
"I can ask security, but you should make the formal request through compliance."
"Do it both ways."
She nodded and left.
I leaned back against the pillows.
My incision hurt.
My head hurt.
My marriage felt less like a betrayal now and more like a crime scene.
Mara sat in the chair opposite me.
"Audrey, I need to ask you something unpleasant."
"Everything today is unpleasant."
"Did Dominic ever ask you to sign blank pages?"
"No."
"Digital signature authorizations?"
"For taxes once."
"When?"
"Last year."
"Did he have access to your phone?"
"He knew my passcode."
"Email?"
"Maybe."
"Banking passwords?"
I thought about it.
"Not directly."
Then I remembered something.
A month earlier, Dominic had insisted we reorganize our household finances before the babies arrived.
He had sat beside me at the kitchen island with my laptop open.
He had complained that pregnancy brain made me forget bills.
I had laughed.
Then I had logged into three accounts while he watched.
"He saw me access them."
Mara wrote that down.
"Did you use password autofill?"
"Yes."
Her pen stopped.
"On a shared device?"
My stomach tightened.
"The laptop stayed at home."
"Could he unlock it?"
"Yes."
Everett walked toward the window.
"We need the apartment secured."
"The lease is in his name."
"Your belongings are inside."
Mara nodded.
"We can request a civil standby if necessary."
I shook my head.
"Not yet."
Everett turned.
"Why?"
"Because Dominic thinks I have nothing."
"He no longer thinks that."
"He knows you are my grandfather."
I looked at Mara.
"But he does not know what we know about the transfers."
Mara understood first.
"You want him to move."
"I want him to think he still has time."
Everett's face darkened.
"That is dangerous."
"So is telling him we found the forged document before we know who helped him."
Mara nodded slowly.
"Peter Lang."
"Maybe."
"His signature is on it."
"And my signature is on it too."
I looked at the page.
"That does not mean I signed it."
Everett leaned both hands on his cane.
"What are you proposing?"
"Do not confront Dominic about the money yet."
"Audrey."
"Freeze what you can."
I kept my voice steady.
"Preserve records."
"And let him believe his plan worked?"
"For a few hours."
Mara studied me.
"What do you expect him to do?"
"Call whoever helped him."
"And if he runs?"
"Then we learn he planned to run."
Everett stared at me for a long moment.
"Your grandmother would hate this idea."
"Grandmother once followed a cheating business partner to Montreal herself."
"She hated other people's dangerous ideas."
Despite everything, I almost smiled.
Then my phone vibrated on the tray.
A text from Dominic appeared.
YOU HAVE TEN MINUTES TO TELL YOUR GRANDFATHER TO BACK OFF MY COMPANY.
A second message arrived.
IF YOU DON'T, I FILE THE DIVORCE AGREEMENT AND ASK FOR EMERGENCY CUSTODY TODAY.
My pulse jumped.
Mara held out her hand.
I gave her the phone.
She read the messages.
"Do not answer."
A third message appeared while she was still holding it.
I KNOW WHAT THE DOCTORS WROTE ABOUT YOU.
I sat upright despite the pain.
"What doctors?"
Mara did not answer.
She scrolled back through the message thread.
Then another notification appeared.
This one was not from Dominic.
It was an automated email from the hospital patient portal.
A new document had been added to my medical record.
MENTAL HEALTH CONSULTATION - COMPLETED.
I stared at the subject line.
"I never had a mental health consultation."
Mara opened the message.
The consultation was dated yesterday afternoon.
The physician's name appeared beneath it.
Dr. Peter Lang.
The note described me as paranoid, emotionally unstable, and potentially unsafe around my newborn children.
May you like
At the bottom, it recommended that my access to Liam and Chloe be supervised.
I had been unconscious for the entire consultation.
