Chapter 3 - THE UNLABELED BOTTLE

I held the bottle beneath the fluorescent hospital light.

“No label?”

The nurse shook her head.

“Mrs. Carter says it isn’t hers.”

Anna stared at it as though it were something alive.

“My mother-in-law gave those to me.”

My chest tightened.

“When?”

“For weeks.”

The nurse immediately stopped us.

“What did she tell you they were?”

Anna looked embarrassed.

“Prenatal supplements.”

I turned toward her.

“You already take prenatal vitamins.”

“I know.”

“Then why—”

“She said these were different.”

Anna’s voice trembled.

“She said she’d used them during pregnancy. She said they helped with swelling.”

The nurse’s expression changed.

“Did you tell your obstetrician?”

Anna shook her head.

“My mother-in-law told me they were natural.”

The nurse took the bottle.

“We’re sending them to the lab.”

The next hour became a blur.

A police officer arrived to take Anna’s statement.

I offered to leave.

Anna grabbed my hand.

“Stay.”

So I listened.

I listened while my wife described a home I supposedly lived in but apparently knew nothing about.

My mother insulted her weight.

Criticized her cooking.

Hid food she knew Anna liked.

Changed the thermostat after I left for work.

Accused Anna of wasting electricity whenever she turned it back up.

She intentionally woke her during naps.

Made comments about how difficult motherhood would be for a “fragile girl like her.”

Once, she had thrown away a package from Anna’s mother before Anna could open it.

Another time, she had moved Anna’s car keys and watched her panic for forty minutes before pretending to find them.

Small things.

Cruel things.

Things designed to sound ridiculous when described separately.

That was the genius of it.

No single incident looked large enough to destroy a marriage over.

Together, they formed a prison.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” I asked.

Anna’s eyes filled.

“I tried.”

My stomach sank.

“When?”

“The night after your birthday dinner.”

I remembered.

Four months earlier.

Anna had said she didn’t want my mother living with us anymore.

I got angry.

Not screaming angry.

Worse.

Cold.

Dismissive.

I had told her my mother had sacrificed everything for me.

I had said,

“She’s family, Anna. I’m not throwing her out because you two can’t get along.”

The memory hit differently now.

Anna looked at my face and knew exactly what I was remembering.

“That was the last time I tried.”

I covered my mouth.

My shame was almost unbearable.

The officer kept his voice neutral.

“Mrs. Carter, did your mother-in-law ever threaten you directly?”

Anna didn’t answer.

“Anna?”

She looked at me.

Then at the officer.

“Yes.”

“What did she say?”

“She told me if I tried to make Nathan choose between us, she would make sure he got custody after the baby was born.”

My stomach turned.

“How?”

Anna swallowed.

“She said everyone already knew pregnant women could become unstable.”

The officer wrote something down.

“She threatened to claim you were mentally unstable?”

Anna nodded.

“She said Nathan would believe her.”

I closed my eyes.

Because until three hours earlier, she might have been right.

The officer asked,

“Was tonight the first physical assault?”

Anna took too long to answer.

My eyes opened.

“Anna?”

She touched her wrist.

“There were things.”

“What things?”

“She grabbed me before.”

“Where?”

“Arms. Shoulders.”

My jaw tightened.

“She pushed me once.”

I stood.

The officer looked up.

“Sir.”

I forced myself back into the chair.

Anna’s contraction monitor began climbing.

The nurse returned.

“Let’s keep stress down.”

Stress.

The word felt absurd.

At six seventeen in the morning, the lab called the attending physician.

He came into the room with the hospital toxicologist on speakerphone.

The doctor’s expression was serious.

“We tested one of the tablets.”

I moved closer to Anna.

“What is it?”

“It appears to contain a prescription medication.”

Anna frowned.

“But I don’t take anything.”

“I know.”

The doctor looked at me.

“Do you recognize the name Evelyn Carter?”

My mother.

“Yes.”

“The prescription was originally issued to her.”

The air disappeared from the room.

Anna whispered,

“What does it do?”

The doctor chose his words carefully.

“In an inappropriate dose, particularly combined with dehydration and late pregnancy, it could contribute to dizziness, abnormal blood pressure and other complications.”

I felt sick.

“Could it hurt the baby?”

“It could increase risk.”

Anna began crying.

I stood beside her.

“Can you prove she gave it to Anna?”

The doctor shook his head.

“That becomes a law-enforcement question.”

My phone rang.

My mother.

I rejected the call.

She called again.

Then again.

On the fourth call, I answered.

“What?”

Her voice came fast.

“Nathan, you need to come home.”

“No.”

“The police are still here.”

“Good.”

“You don’t understand what happened.”

“I understand enough.”

“You’ve always been dramatic when you’re angry.”

I almost laughed.

“You were holding my pregnant wife by her hair.”

“Because she came at me.”

Anna heard that.

Her face changed.

My mother continued.

“She’s manipulating you. She’s been planning this.”

“Planning what?”

“To turn you against me.”

I looked at Anna.

“I’m hanging up.”

“Wait.”

Something in my mother’s tone changed.

Not fear.

Calculation.

“You should ask your wife why she was going through your father’s office last month.”

I stopped.

Anna stared at me.

“What?”

My mother lowered her voice.

“Ask her what she found.”

I looked at Anna.

Her face had gone pale.

“Anna?”

She said nothing.

My mother whispered,

“She didn’t tell you everything.”

Then she disconnected.

I stared at the phone.

Anna turned toward the window.

“What did you find in my father’s office?”

Her lips parted.

Another contraction hit.

She gripped the bedrail until it passed.

Then she finally looked at me.

“A bank statement.”

“What bank statement?”

“It had your mother’s name on it.”

I waited.

Anna swallowed.

“And your father’s.”

“My father has been dead eight years.”

“I know.”

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She reached for my hand.

“Nathan… the statement was dated three months ago.”