Chapter 22 - BERNICE
My mother testified.
Her lawyer began:
“Did you love Elodie?”
“Yes.”
“Want her ill?”
“No.”
“Want attention?”
“No.”
“Benefit financially?”
“No.”
Good.
Not motive.
Then:
“Why alter medication?”
“I believed she was being overtreated.”
“Based on?”
“My experience with Griffin. Reading. Observing that Elodie sometimes calmed without medication.”
Then:
“Did you intend harm?”
“No.”
“Did you believe you were helping?”
“Yes.”
“Why falsify logs?”
She cried.
“Because Griffin panicked.”
There.
Then prosecutor.
“If you believed you were right, why hide it?”
Silence.
“Because he wouldn’t agree.”
“Who was Elodie’s legal parent?”
“Griffin.”
“Who prescribed the medication?”
“Dr. Patel.”
“Were you either?”
“No.”
“Did you tell Patel you changed dosing?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“He would disagree.”
“So every person with legal or medical authority would disagree.”
“Yes.”
“And you did it anyway.”
“Yes.”
Then hospital.
“Did you pull Elodie out of bed?”
“I helped her stand.”
“Did she ask?”
“She was refusing.”
“That’s not my question.”
“No.”
“Did she fall?”
“Yes.”
“Did you call her a liar?”
“Yes.”
“Did you say she pretended to be sick for attention?”
“Yes.”
“Do you believe that now?”
Bernice looked toward jury.
“No.”
That was new.
“Why not?”
She looked at me.
“Because I confused the possibility that anxiety made symptoms feel worse with the belief that symptoms were not real.”
There.
Then:
“Do you believe you endangered her?”
Long pause.
My mother’s whole case sat there.
Finally:
“Yes.”
Her lawyer closed eyes.
The courtroom went silent.
Bernice continued:
“I did not want to. I did not understand it that way. But yes.”
The prosecutor sat.
No further question.
The trial still required verdict.
May you like
But something in the family case ended there.
My mother finally called danger by its name.
