Love Reduced to Zero, No Need to Meet Again novel · Chapter 16 of 24

Chapter 16: The Yard

I went to meet them in a wheelchair, with Eli pushing.

The nurse had offered to send them away. I told her no.

I wanted them to see me come.

The waiting room was full at two in the morning.

A man with a bandaged hand sat by the vending machine. Two nurses stood at the desk with their tablets.

My mother wore her good wool coat and her pearls.

My father stood behind her with his hat in both hands.

Between them was a thin man in a gray suit with a leather folder.

"There she is," my mother said, in her softest voice. "Oh, my poor girl."

She came at me with her arms out.

Eli turned the chair a quarter turn, and her arms closed on air.

"Don't," I said.

"Cora, we've been so frightened. Your husband called us from the car. He said you were hurt."

"He said you were in danger of losing the baby," the lawyer said. "Which is why I'm here."

"Who are you?"

"I represent Mr. Frederick Ellsworth. I have a petition prepared, and your parents have kindly agreed to sign it."

"Sign what?"

"A request to name them your medical proxies for the remainder of the pregnancy."

"You want my mother to make my medical choices."

"You are, forgive me, in an unstable state. You have been bleeding. You have been publicly distressed. You have been, I understand, in the company of a business competitor."

"I am a grown woman with a doctorate."

"Mother knows best," my mother said, and smiled. "It's only a signature, darling. You'd be home with Porter by Sunday."

The man with the bandaged hand had stopped pretending to look at his phone.

I looked at my father.

He was looking at his hat.

"Dad," I said. "Do you agree with this?"

He did not answer.

"Dad."

"Your mother knows what's best for the family," he said, to the floor.

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