Chapter 8
The bottle held tablets with the same appearance as Emily’s prescription, but the laboratory identified a different medication.
Grant said the result was part of a larger investigation. He would not tell us who had switched the tablets without evidence. I was relieved he was being careful. I was also frightened that Emily had taken medicine from that bottle for weeks.
Dr. Perez reviewed the result with Emily. She explained what was known about the medication and adjusted Emily’s care. Emily listened, asked questions, and wrote the answers in a new notebook.
“I get to keep this one,” she said to me afterward.
“It’s yours.”
“And I’m not hiding it in a music box.”
She smiled a little. It was the first joke she had made since the chapel.
At Claire’s house, we built a routine around her recovery. Lily came home from school and told her mother one good thing and one hard thing about her day. Daniel visited after work. Sometimes he made dinner. Sometimes Emily asked him to leave early because she was tired.
He left when she asked.
One evening, I found him on the porch after putting Lily to bed.
“I want her to trust me again,” he said.
“Then keep telling her the truth, even when it makes you look bad.”
“I told her I heard her ask me to call Dr. Perez and put it off. I said I was busy.”
“That hurt her.”
“I know.”
He looked through the window at Emily reading on the couch.
“I spent years believing Mom knew best whenever someone was sick. Emily was right there telling me what she needed.”
“You can’t repair that with one apology.”
“I know that too.”
I had worked for the family, but Emily had become my friend. I wanted her safe. I also saw Daniel trying to become someone she could ask for help again. I could leave that decision to her.
Patricia’s attorney contacted Daniel, asking him to support her account that Emily had accidentally taken too much medicine. He refused.
“I’ll tell investigators what I know,” he said. “I won’t guess for Mom.”
Patricia sent Claire messages accusing her of keeping Lily away. Claire saved them and passed them to Grant. She did not show them to Lily.
Dr. Harlan’s hospital review reached a finding soon after. His record of Emily’s examination did not match when he had entered her room, and he had not followed the required steps before declaring her dead. The hospital referred the matter to the medical board and to investigators.
Daniel read the notice twice.
“If Nia hadn’t heard her,” he said.
I did not want to finish the sentence either.
Mr. Vale came to Claire’s house and asked to speak with Emily. She agreed, with Daniel and me in the room.
“I heard a sound during preparation,” he said. “I thought it was the case latch. I should have checked.”
Emily folded her hands in her lap.
“Yes,” she said. “You should have.”
“I’m sorry.”
“I hear you,” she answered. “I’m not ready to say anything else.”
Vale accepted that. He left without asking her to make him feel better.
Emily watched him drive away.
“People keep telling me how frightened they were,” she said. “I was the one inside.”
Daniel sat beside her. “You don’t owe them comfort.”
She looked at him with surprise. Then she rested her head against his shoulder for a moment.
The next morning, Grant came with two investigators. They had traced the purchase of the substitute medicine. It had been obtained through a pharmacy account connected to Dr. Harlan’s practice. Patricia had picked it up.
They asked Emily to tell them about the tea and the weeks before the hospital. She asked for Grace to be present. They waited.
When Grace arrived, Emily spoke slowly. She described refusing a tablet the night she became unresponsive. Patricia returned with tea and told her it would calm her stomach. Emily drank some, then felt dizzy.
“I called for Daniel,” she said. “I remember Patricia saying he was asleep.”
Daniel shook his head. “I was at the office. Mom told me you were resting.”
The investigators wrote it down.
After they left, Emily went upstairs and slept. Lily stayed at a friend’s house for the afternoon. Daniel and I sat in the kitchen, neither of us hungry.
“What will happen to Mom?” he asked.
“I don’t know.”
“I used to think wanting the truth meant I didn’t love her.”
“You can love her and still tell the truth.”
He looked toward the stairs.
“I’m learning that from Emily.”
Two days later, Grant called. Patricia and Dr. Harlan had been arrested in connection with Emily’s poisoning and the false death declaration. Their cases would be investigated separately, and both would have the chance to answer the allegations.
Emily listened to the call with me.
May you like
When it ended, she asked for Lily.
She held her daughter for a long time.
