“You knew about this.”
“I knew nothing until today.”
“You’re lying.”
“No,” I said.
“I was busy trying to survive childbirth.”
The words landed harder than I expected.
A woman in the second row lowered her gaze.
She was one of the family acquaintances who had visited my hospital room the day after Maya was born and congratulated Garrett while I drifted in and out of pain medication.
Victor’s recording shifted.
He looked down at a paper, then back into the camera.
“The financial crimes are not the only reason I changed my estate plan.
Audrey, there is another file on the drive.
It concerns instructions Garrett gave to hospital administrators before your delivery.
Play it now.”
The screen returned to the file menu.
A second recording appeared beneath Victor’s statement.
HOSPITAL CONFERENCE — AUTHORIZED RELEASE.
Garrett stopped breathing.
He stepped backward so quickly that his heel caught the edge of the marble stair.
Samantha whispered, “What did you do?”
For the first time, she sounded afraid of him rather than aligned with him.
I looked at Eleanor.
She nodded.
I selected the file.
The image showed a hospital conference room three weeks before Maya’s birth.
The camera angle came from a ceiling security system.
Garrett sat at a table with Dr.
Malcolm Reeves, the physician he had insisted replace my obstetrician, and Lydia Cross, the private nurse who now stood frozen near the cathedral aisle.
Garrett’s recorded voice came through the speakers.
“After the baby is delivered, keep Audrey sedated for at least twenty-four hours.
Document agitation, confusion, anything that supports temporary incapacity.”
My fingers went numb around the edge of the podium.
On the screen, Dr.
Reeves looked uncomfortable.
“There has to be a medical basis.”
“Then find one,” Garrett replied.
“My wife has become emotionally unstable during the pregnancy.
If she tries to leave, I need the record to show she is a danger to herself or the child.”
The entire cathedral seemed to tilt.
I remembered waking after the emergency surgery, struggling to focus while Garrett told me I had imagined several conversations.
I remembered asking why I felt so heavily medicated and being told I was hysterical from exhaustion.
I remembered Lydia refusing to bring me my phone.
The nurse in the aisle began crying.
Garrett pointed at her.
“She edited that recording.”
Lydia covered her mouth.
Eleanor turned toward her.
“Ms.
Cross, your attorney is outside.
This would be an appropriate time to decide whether you intend to cooperate.”
Lydia’s shoulders collapsed.
“He told us Mr.
Harrison approved it,” she said.
“He said the family had concerns about Audrey’s mental state.
When the surgery became an emergency, Dr.
