Chapter 20: Under Oath

The deputy handed Jonas the subpoena in the corridor outside the courtroom, while I stood two feet away.

It came from Wyatt's lawyer.

It called Jonas as a witness for the petitioner at two o'clock, to answer questions about me.

He read it twice. Then he folded it and put it in his breast pocket.

I was watching him with my whole face asking.

"He wants me on the stand," Jonas said. "He'd like the judge to hear what I am to you."

"Jonas, you don't have to."

"I do. I'm a witness either way." He touched my hand once. "Go and eat something."

I did not eat. I sat at our table beside our lawyer, with Marit behind me in the first row, gripping her purse.

At two o'clock the judge called his name, and he took the oath.

Wyatt's lawyer stood and buttoned his jacket. He was sweating a little at the hairline.

"Dr. Berglund. You are the medical director of the emergency department at St. Anne's?"

"I am."

"And you treated the minor child on February twenty-fifth?"

"I did."

"And six weeks later you began a sexual relationship with her mother."

"Forty-six days after she left her husband. One night, after the company gala."

Jonas did not look at me.

"We had agreed to wait until this hearing was over, and we didn't. Yes."

A murmur ran through the room. The judge raised one finger and it stopped.

"You'll agree that a physician sleeping with the mother of a patient has a conflict of interest."

"I agree that I should say so, and I'm saying so now, under oath."

"You were not honest with this court until I forced you to be."

"Nobody asked me," he said. "I'd have told you in the hallway."

The lawyer's mouth tightened.

"Dr. Berglund, you are an interested party. You have every reason to say whatever helps Ms. Haldorsen."

"I have one reason. I want to say what I saw."

"And what is that?"

"On February twenty-fifth, at two in the morning, a four-year-old girl had a seizure on the floor of my waiting room."

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