He Thought I'd Forget novel · Chapter 11 of 32

Chapter 11: What Jeanine Signed

Jeanine knew something was wrong before we got to the car.

"What did he say to you?"

"Not here."

She drove us home with both hands on the wheel and the radio off.

Clark followed in his truck.

At the house, the kids were home from school and fighting about the TV.

Jeanine sent them upstairs with a bag of chips and a threat.

Clark took Davey into the backyard to look at the dog next door through the fence.

Then it was just the two of us in the yellow kitchen.

"He told me to ask you what you signed," I said. "Seven years ago."

Jeanine sat down.

She didn't even look surprised.

"The ICU," she said. "The second night. You were on a ventilator."

She pressed her palms flat on the table.

"He came in at three in the morning with a clipboard. He was crying. He said there was a new treatment, his treatment, and it was your best chance. He needed family to sign. Mom and Dad were gone. He said it would look better coming from your blood."

"What was it?"

"A consent. For you to be in his study." Her voice thinned out. "And a letter. Saying the family agreed he should make every decision for you. Medical. Money. All of it."

The fridge hummed.

"I didn't read it," she said. "Lee, I didn't read it. I was so tired I couldn't see. He was the doctor. He was your husband. I signed where he pointed."

"And then?"

"And then he used it." She laughed, and it came out broken. "Six months later, when I kept showing up. He stood in court and said, 'Even her own sister agreed she needs stability.' He held up my signature. The judge read it out loud."

I looked at her hands.

There was a scar on her thumb from a pair of shears.

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