Chapter 10 - THE PHOTOGRAPHS OF MY “FALLS”
Daniel’s laptop contained a folder called HANNAH HEALTH.
Photographs of bruises.
My bruises.
Some I did not know he photographed.
Captions:
Fell near laundry.
Dizzy after shower.
Pregnancy fainting.
Emotional episode.
One showed the rope mark around my wrist.
Caption:
Self-scratching during argument.
I had never scratched myself.
Another:
Hannah after refusing breakfast.
The photo showed me pale and shaking after a morning outside.
He was documenting the consequences while deleting the cause.
Then we found a draft letter to a psychologist.
My wife has a history of postpartum depression and has recently shown increasing instability, including self-neglect, falls, emotional outbursts, fixation on perceived mistreatment, and physical aggression.
Physical aggression referred to one night when I slapped Daniel.
I had.
Once.
He called Emma useless for crying over homework.
I slapped him.
It was wrong.
Daniel photographed the redness.
The recording began after his insult.
I told Helen before she found it.
“I hit him.”
“Once?”
“Yes.”
“Any other times?”
“I pushed him away from a doorway once.”
“Why?”
“He wouldn’t let me leave.”
“Any injuries?”
“No.”
She nodded.
“You own what you did.”
“Yes.”
That mattered.
I would not let Daniel turn one real wrong into permission to invent twenty others.
At my custody evaluation, Dr. Samuel Price asked:
“Do you believe the slap was justified?”
“No.”
“Even given the context?”
“No.”
“What would you do differently?”
“Take Emma out of the room.”
“Why didn’t you?”
“I thought winning the argument mattered.”
That answer belonged to me.
May you like
I was not perfect.
I was also not what Daniel’s folder claimed.
