Chapter 19: The Consent Form

Alastair's POV

The pediatrician's waiting room had a fish tank, a row of plastic chairs and a woman at the desk who had watched the Terrace Takedown four times.

She told me so when I signed in as Hazel's driver.

"I'm a fan," she said, and put a lollipop in my hand.

It was the two-month checkup.

Emmeline had gone back to the exam room with the baby, and Hazel and I sat in the plastic chairs with the diaper bag between us.

The pan was in the diaper bag. I had not asked.

"You're nervous," Hazel said.

"I'm not."

"Your knee is going."

I put my hand on my knee.

I had been in rooms with sixty-million-dollar decisions and had never once been told my knee was going.

The door from the parking lot opened.

Brennan walked in.

He wore jeans and a jacket I had not seen before, and he carried a manila envelope under his arm.

He was not supposed to be within five hundred feet of Emmeline. It was a condition of his bail, and he had signed it.

He saw me, and he smiled.

"Alastair. Look at this. The whole gang."

I stood up.

Hazel did not stand, but she slid her hand into the diaper bag.

"You need to leave," I said.

"I'm here for my daughter's appointment. I'm on the form."

He walked to the desk and set the envelope down.

"Authorization to share her records with the father," he said, brightly. "Signed by the mother. I'd like to be put on the visit."

The woman at the desk looked at the paper without touching it.

I came up beside him and looked too.

At the bottom was Emmeline's signature, with a wrong looping T that I had seen on the decree.