Chapter 20: Recorded Line

Alexis's POV

I woke up to a man standing at a window with his back to me and a phone in his hand.

I knew that back by now.

I knew the set of the shoulders that meant he was reading something he did not like.

"Emmett."

He turned, and his face did what he told it to, which was nothing.

"Good morning," he said. "I'm going to tell you something."

"All right."

"Hear all of it before you decide how you feel."

"That's a bad start."

"It's the only honest one I've got."

He sat on the edge of the bed and handed me the phone.

I read the notice twice.

Immediate Suspension.

Falsified placement records. Endangerment of an infant.

Signed, the Wexler Family Trust.

"She did this at four in the morning," I said.

"The board lets a trust file anything it likes. They suspend first and sort it out after."

"How long?"

"Two weeks to a hearing. My nurses can't work. Every family I serve loses night care today."

I put the phone down on the blanket very carefully.

I was angrier than I had been since the nursery, and it was cold and clean.

"You took no money from her."

"I took it from her son. That's in the complaint, in her words. She's built it around the one thing I did wrong."

"Then it's the one thing I can fix."

"Alexis."

"You gave me your whole file." I sat up, holding the sheet, and his eyes dropped and came back up.