Chapter 2 - THE REPORT DANIEL CHANGED
Lily had a mild concussion and a bruised elbow.
The emergency physician found no fracture, but she instructed me to wake Lily every few hours and return immediately if she vomited, became confused, or developed worsening pain.
Police photographed the mark above her eyebrow.
Detective Mara Collins interviewed us separately.
Lily said Richard pulled her chair because he was angry she had placed a card at the empty seat.
“What was on the card?” Collins asked.
“A picture of the house.”
“Who was it for?”
“Great-Grandma Evelyn.”
Evelyn Hart had died four years earlier. The empty chair had belonged to her.
Daniel arrived at the hospital with Margaret.
Richard did not come.
My husband’s written statement said the chair had “shifted during a disagreement.”
I read the sentence twice.
“You saw him pull it.”
Daniel rubbed both hands over his face.
“I said Dad acted recklessly.”
“You removed the action.”
“I don’t want the police turning this into something bigger.”
“Your father threw Lily onto the floor.”
“He lost his temper.”
“And you are editing it for him.”
Margaret began crying.
“This family is collapsing over one awful moment.”
Lily opened her eyes from the hospital bed.
“It wasn’t one moment.”
Margaret stopped.
My daughter looked at Daniel.
“Grandpa said Mommy people don’t get Hart chairs.”
Daniel could not answer.
Detective Collins asked Margaret and Daniel to leave.
Before discharge, a woman from Kingsley Title called my phone.
She had been trying to reach me about a document filed under Lily’s name.
“What document?”
“A guardian acknowledgment related to residential property.”
“I signed nothing.”
The woman became careful.
“Then you should speak with counsel before anyone submits another form.”
I asked which property.
She gave Richard’s address.
The house he had just called his.
May you like
The filing had been submitted two weeks earlier.
The listed approving parent was Daniel.
