Chapter 3
PART 4: THE VIDEO DIDN'T LIE
Security arrived less than two minutes after Elaine called.
Two officers entered first.
Behind them came a nursing supervisor named Rebecca.
David immediately moved toward them.
“Thank God.”
He pointed at me.
“My wife is having a psychiatric crisis.”
Elaine stepped in front of him.
“No.”
The word stopped everyone.
She held up the form.
“We have a consent problem.”
David's face reddened.
“She can't consent.”
Rebecca looked at him.
“Who determined that?”
“My wife is clearly not rational.”
“Who clinically determined she lacks decision-making capacity?”
David opened his mouth.
Nothing came out.
Carol tried.
“She hasn't been herself for weeks.”
Rebecca turned toward her.
“Are you her physician?”
“No, but I'm her mother-in-law.”
Rebecca looked at the hidden call button still sitting on the counter.
“And you removed that?”
Carol's face changed.
“I was trying to stop her from agitating herself.”
Rebecca didn't respond.
She walked directly to me.
“My name is Rebecca.”
She crouched enough that we were eye level.
“I need to ask you some questions.”
David approached.
Rebecca held up one hand.
“Not you.”
“I am her husband.”
“I understand.”
“She needs me here.”
I looked at Rebecca.
“I want him out.”
David stared at me.
“Megan.”
“I want all three of them away from me until I know my babies are safe.”
Natalie looked startled.
Carol looked furious.
David looked wounded.
Rebecca looked at security.
“Please escort the family and the other visitor into the hallway.”
David refused to move.
“You're making a huge mistake.”
One of the officers stepped closer.
“Sir.”
David pointed at me.
“She is manipulating you.”
I felt something strange then.
Not victory.
I wasn't strong enough for victory yet.
I felt exhausted.
“Please get him out.”
The officer moved between us.
David finally backed toward the door.
His eyes never left mine.
“This isn't over.”
Elaine looked at him.
“No, sir.”
Her voice was flat.
“It isn't.”
The door closed.
I burst into tears.
Not delicate tears.
Not cinematic tears.
Ugly, shaking sobs that came from somewhere so deep inside me that I couldn't stop them.
“I am not crazy.”
Elaine moved toward me.
“I didn't say you were.”
“I know I'm upset.”
“You have reasons to be upset.”
“I haven't slept.”
“That doesn't mean you lose the right to answer questions.”
“I was jealous.”
“That isn't a diagnosis.”
“I yelled.”
Rebecca pulled a chair toward me.
“People can be frightened, exhausted, angry, jealous, and distressed without losing the ability to participate in their own medical care.”
I covered my face.
For weeks, every feeling had been treated like evidence.
Hearing someone describe emotions as emotions almost broke me.
“My babies.”
Elaine nodded immediately.
“We are checking them now.”
She called for another nurse.
The monitors came in.
Cold gel touched my stomach.
Two sensors were positioned carefully.
Then I heard it.
One heartbeat.
Fast.
Strong.
Then another.
I closed my eyes.
“Both babies have heart activity,” the nurse said.
My entire body sagged.
“Are they okay?”
“We're going to monitor them.”
“Please.”
“We will.”
Rebecca asked whether I wanted David back in the room.
“No.”
“His mother?”
“No.”
“Natalie?”
I hesitated.
My first instinct was no.
Then I remembered the phone.
“Yes.”
Rebecca raised an eyebrow.
“Only her.”
A security officer opened the door.
A minute later, Natalie entered alone.
Without David beside her, she looked different.
Younger.
More frightened.
She held her phone against her chest.
I stared at her.
“Were you sleeping with my husband?”
Her eyes widened.
“No.”
I studied her face.
“You were texting him at two in the morning.”
“I was.”
“Why?”
She glanced at Rebecca.
Then back at me.
“He told me you were having some kind of mental health crisis.”
I felt sick.
“What does that have to do with you?”
“He said you thought we were having an affair.”
“I did.”
“I know.”
She looked down.
“He wanted me to tell you directly that we weren't.”
I laughed weakly.
“So why didn't you?”
“Because every time I tried to talk to you, he told me not to.”
I stared at her.
“He said confronting you would make things worse.”
“Of course he did.”
She flinched.
“I should have realized.”
“What did he tell you?”
Natalie sat slowly.
“That you had become suspicious during pregnancy.”
I said nothing.
“That you were checking his phone.”
“I asked to see it once.”
“He said you were following him.”
“I went to his office because he forgot his laptop.”
“He told me you waited outside for almost an hour.”
“I waited because he wasn't there.”
Natalie closed her eyes.
“God.”
The room became quiet except for the twins' heartbeats.
Two steady rhythms.
Proof of life.
Proof that despite everything, they were still with me.
“Why did you come to the hospital?”
I asked.
Natalie gripped her phone.
“David called me.”
“When?”
“When you were leaving your house.”
“So this wasn't an accident.”
“No.”
“He told me you were dangerous?”
“He said you might accuse him publicly.”
I almost smiled.
“That was the danger?”
“He also said you might become aggressive.”
“Did I?”
Natalie looked directly at me.
“No.”
“What did you see?”
She took a shaky breath.
“I saw you arguing.”
“Did I hit anyone?”
“No.”
“Did I threaten anyone?”
“No.”
“Did I threaten myself?”
“No.”
“Did you see me try to leave?”
“Yes.”
“And?”
“David stopped you.”
My throat tightened.
“What happened after that?”
Natalie unlocked her phone.
“I recorded it.”
She looked at Rebecca.
“I recorded most of it.”
Rebecca stood.
“Would you be willing to preserve that video?”
Natalie nodded.
“Yes.”
I looked at her.
“Play it.”
Rebecca hesitated.
“Megan, you don't have to watch.”
“I want to.”
Natalie pressed the screen.
My own voice filled the room.
“Let go of me.”
Then David.
“You need to sit down.”
My voice again.
“No.”
Carol said something I couldn't understand.
Then came my scream.
“The babies!”
I covered my mouth.
The video shook as Natalie moved closer.
On the screen, David and Carol forced me into the chair.
I watched myself struggle.
I watched David grab the restraint.
I watched him pull it over my stomach.
Then I heard a sound I hadn't remembered.
Natalie's voice.
“David, that's too tight.”
He ignored her.
She said it again.
“That's too tight.”
He turned toward the camera.
“She'll hurt herself if we don't restrain her.”
In the video, I was crying.
“Call a nurse.”
Carol walked toward the bed.
My voice became louder.
“Where is my button?”
Carol removed it.
“Stop pressing this.”
She placed it behind the towels.
The video continued.
David bent close to me.
His voice was low.
“You did this.”
I shut my eyes.
“Stop.”
Natalie stopped the video immediately.
“No.”
I opened my eyes.
“Keep going.”
She looked miserable.
The recording showed Carol taking paperwork from David.
I couldn't see exactly what she wrote.
But I watched her bend over the counter.
I watched David stand beside her.
Then I heard myself asking what they were doing.
Neither answered.
Rebecca looked sharply at Natalie.
“Did you see what she signed?”
Natalie nodded slowly.
“The form Elaine found.”
My stomach turned.
“You knew?”
“I knew she signed something.”
“You didn't stop them.”
“No.”
Her eyes filled with tears.
“I didn't understand what it was.”
I wanted to hate her.
Part of me still did.
“You believed him.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
She looked at the floor.
“Because he sounded reasonable.”
That sentence hurt in a completely different way.
Of course he did.
David always sounded reasonable.
That was his gift.
He didn't need everyone to believe I was insane.
He only needed them to believe he was reasonable enough that whatever he did must have a reasonable explanation.
Natalie wiped her eyes.
“I'm sorry.”
I didn't forgive her.
Not then.
Maybe forgiveness wasn't even the important thing.
I simply said, “Give them the video.”
She nodded.
“I will.”
Rebecca asked security to take statements separately.
Then she turned toward me.
“I also need to ask what you want done next.”
Those words almost confused me.
“What I want?”
“Yes.”
No one had asked me that in hours.
I looked at my bruised wrist.
At the marks across my stomach.
At the monitor recording my babies' heartbeats.
Then I looked at the forged form.
“I want the chart corrected.”
Rebecca nodded.
“I want it documented that I did not sign that.”
“Yes.”
“I want it documented that I refused the medication.”
“Yes.”
“I want pictures of the marks.”
“We can document your injuries.”
“I want security to keep David and Carol away from me.”
“Yes.”
I swallowed.
“And I want to make a report about what they did.”
Rebecca studied me.
“Okay.”
My voice shook.
“I don't know what happens after that.”
“You don't have to know everything right now.”
I looked at the door.
“I just know I don't want him making another decision for me.”
Elaine picked up the call button Carol had hidden.
She placed it carefully in my hand.
“Then keep this with you.”
It was such a small thing.
Plastic.
Cord.
Red button.
May you like
But when my fingers closed around it, I almost cried again.
Because for the first time that night, I had something David couldn't answer for me.
