Chapter 3 - The Weight Chart
The urgent-care nurse offered Lily apple juice. Lily hid it inside her jacket.
"Sweetheart, you can drink that," the nurse said.
"For later," Lily answered.
I turned toward the wall so she wouldn't see me cry. Dr. Priya Shah weighed Lily, checked her hydration, and compared her chart with the record from her last pediatric appointment. She had lost weight when she should have been gaining it. Dr. Shah said Lily was stable, but her eating pattern and the history I described needed prompt follow-up.
"I'm required to make a report based on these concerns," she told me. "That doesn't mean a conclusion has been reached. It means someone needs to look carefully at what's happening."
"Please do," I said. "I don't want this to become my word against his."
She documented everything: the dirty clothes, Lily's words, the unopened meals, the timestamps on my photos. When she asked how long Lily had been staying with her father, I admitted I had agreed to six weekends while I covered night shifts at the hospital.
"I thought she was safe with him."
"You came when you found out otherwise," the doctor said, and returned to checking Lily rather than offering me an easy promise.
We left with a written plan for meals, a pediatric follow-up, and the number for a family-services investigator. My friend Tessa, a respiratory therapist who lived two streets from me, had already made up the spare bed in her townhouse.
Lily fell asleep halfway through her toast. I watched her chew even as her eyes closed.
At 11:41 p.m., Ryan left a voicemail. His tone was calm enough to sound practiced.
"I told the investigator how unstable you've been since your double shifts started. Mom has pictures. Do yourself a favor and bring Lily back before court makes you."
May you like
I played it twice, then opened the last image I'd taken in the cabinet. Behind the trust papers was a second envelope, partly covered by a plastic bag. It bore the logo of a company called Westbrook Family Services.
I searched the name. The business address belonged to Diane's vacant rental property.
