His Lifelong Pleas Got Nothing novel · Chapter 16 of 32

Chapter 16: The Lobby

Tillie's POV

"Put her on speaker," I said. "And don't hang up."

Sam looked at me, then at the phone, then he did it.

I opened the recorder on mine and set it on the counter between us.

"This is Matilda Salisbury," I said. "I'm the mother named in a Boston neonatal record from five years ago. I'm asking you to read me that record out loud, now, while it's still open."

There was a pause on the line.

"I'm not allowed to send it," Sam's friend said.

"You aren't sending it. You're reading it to the mother. Sam is in the room."

"I'm here," Sam said. "I'm a witness."

She breathed out.

Then she read it, slowly, line by line.

The birth date, the weight, the hundred and nine days, and the discharge to M. Henshaw.

She read the signature of the attending, and the time stamp, and the line that said the mother was unavailable, under sedation.

When she finished I said thank you, and the recording stopped.

"That's the last thing I'll ever say about it," she said. "At nine it's gone."

"It's on my phone," I said. "Thank you."

I saved the file three times, and I emailed it to myself, and to my friend, and to the clinic.

Sam watched me do it without a word.

His face had gone quiet and proud.

"You're going to Greenwich," he said.

"Yes."

"Eat first."

"I'm not hungry."

"Doctor's orders," he said, and picked up the pan.

I took it out of his hand and set it down.

"You're off shift."

He opened his mouth to argue and then stopped, because he had heard what I said.

A smile came up slowly at one corner of his mouth.

"I'm very bad at that, too," he said.

"I noticed."

He kissed me once on the forehead.

"Then I'll make you toast," he said. "As your friend. A friend who has seen you in his shirt."

I ate the toast standing up.

We were halfway down the stairs when we heard the voices in the lobby.

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