Chapter 17 #3
“I want to speak to you privately,” he said to Abby. “He can leave, and you can give me the rest of the information about my daughter.”
“You received the same information I did.” Abby moved to stand beside Evan without touching him. “The report will go to my doctor, and I’ll send you any relevant updates in writing.”
“You let him sit beside you while you found out we’re having a girl.” Hudson lowered his voice. “Do you have any idea what you took from me?”
“I arrived on time.” Abby felt the familiar pressure to justify herself and refused it. “You chose when to leave your apartment.”
Hudson’s expression sharpened at the reference. “You checked where I was?”
“You said you were leaving the office, but the traffic delay was near your apartment.” Abby walked toward the exit. “I checked because you asked me to delay the scan.”
He followed her into the waiting room. “My meeting ended early, so I went home before the appointment. I don’t owe you a report of every place I go.”
“I didn’t ask for one.” Abby pushed through the glass door into the corridor. “You gave me an explanation that wasn’t true.”
Hudson caught up beside the elevator. “You were looking for a reason to exclude me.”
“I included you.” Abby pressed the call button. “You missed the appointment.”
The elevator arrived, and Evan held the door without speaking. Abby stepped inside, but Hudson remained in the corridor.
“This is exactly what my attorney warned me about,” he said as the doors began closing. “You’re creating a record that makes me look unreliable while you build a new family with him.”
Abby met his eyes through the narrowing gap. “I didn’t create today’s record, Hudson. You did.”
Evan walked Abby to her car but stopped several feet from the driver’s door. The parking lot was bright with midday sun, and the warmth made her cardigan unnecessary for the first time that spring.
“I’m sorry he confronted you,” Abby said as she searched her purse for her keys. “I knew he would be angry, but I didn’t expect him to arrive at the end.”
“You don’t need to apologize for his behavior.” Evan glanced back toward the medical building. “Do you feel safe driving home?”
“Yes.” Abby found the keys and closed her purse. “I’m angry, but I’m not shaking.”
“Do you want me to wait until he leaves?” Evan asked as he shifted the laptop bag higher on his shoulder. “I can work from my car.”
Abby looked toward the entrance. Hudson had not appeared, and she suspected he was still inside demanding copies of records the clinic could not give him.
“Wait five minutes,” she said. “Then you should go back to work.”
Evan nodded and leaned against the hood of his car several spaces away. He opened his laptop without watching Abby, allowing her to sit inside her locked car without making the precaution feel like evidence of weakness.
Abby called Sadie first. Her sister answered in a whisper from the courthouse hallway and listened while Abby told her the baby was a girl.
“A niece,” Sadie said as her voice broke. “I knew it. I bought yellow diapers because I didn’t want to influence the universe, but I knew.”
Abby laughed through the tears she had held back inside the clinic. “The color of the diapers would not have changed her sex.”
“You can’t prove that now.” Sadie lowered her voice further. “Is she healthy?”
“Everything looked normal.” Abby touched the envelope resting on the passenger seat. “They measured her heart and spine and everything they could see.”
She told Sadie about Hudson arriving late and the confrontation. By the time the call ended, Evan had closed his laptop and was watching the medical-center doors.
Hudson emerged with his phone pressed to his ear. He saw Abby’s car, stopped, and turned toward the opposite side of the lot when he noticed Evan waiting nearby.
Evan remained where he was until Hudson drove away. Then he approached Abby’s open window but left a full step between himself and the door.
“He’s gone,” he said as he placed both hands in his pockets. “Do you need anything before I leave?”
“No.” Abby picked up the ultrasound envelope. “Thank you for coming in with me.”
“Thank you for asking me.” Evan looked toward the photograph she had removed. “I’m glad she’s healthy.”
Abby followed his gaze to the blurred profile. The sun had moved enough to fall across the passenger seat, and she was aware of how quiet the parking lot had become. “She moved last night, and today she refused to turn for half the measurements. I may have an uncooperative daughter.”
Evan’s mouth softened at one corner. “She has a mind of her own.” He stepped back from the car. “Just like her mother.”
Abby looked at him then, directly, in a way she had been careful not to do inside. He held her gaze for a moment before glancing down at the pavement, and she recognized the restraint in it because she was practicing the same one.
He returned to his own vehicle without looking back. Abby sat with her hands in her lap until he had gone. The photograph remained propped against the dashboard for the journey home, a small profile facing upward in the afternoon light.