Chapter 2 - The Bottles in Luke’s Car)
The oldest prescription bottle was dated six days after Caroline had supposedly lost her first pregnancy.
Caroline turned it over in her hand while Detective Maria Alvarez stood near the hospital window.
The label was faded.
CAROLINE MILLER.
Clonazepam.
Two tablets daily.
Caroline had no memory of taking it.
The detective had arrived shortly after midnight, when Luke was formally booked on suspicion of aggravated assault and domestic violence.
Dr. Carter remained in the room.
So did Nurse Sarah.
Nobody wanted Caroline alone.
“What did my husband tell the doctors back then?” Caroline asked.
Dr. Carter had pulled archived records.
“He said you had preexisting anxiety and panic attacks.”
“I didn’t.”
“There was also a notation that you experienced confusion after the head injury.”
Caroline stared at the bottle.
“Did you prescribe this?”
“No.”
“Who did?”
“A physician named Dr. Marcus Vale.”
Caroline frowned.
“I don’t know him.”
Dr. Carter exchanged a glance with Detective Alvarez.
“What?”
Alvarez answered.
“Marcus Vale surrendered his medical license two years ago.”
“Why?”
“Improper prescribing practices. Falsifying records. Insurance fraud.”
Caroline looked at the bottle again.
“He knew Luke?”
“We’re checking.”
A movement in the hallway caught her attention.
A hospital security guard walked past.
Caroline flinched instinctively.
Sarah noticed.
“Do you want the door closed?”
“Yes.”
Sarah closed it immediately.
Caroline hated that she was suddenly afraid of every unfamiliar footstep.
Her whole marriage seemed to be transforming in front of her.
Ten years reduced to questions.
She thought about meeting Luke at twenty-one.
He had seemed mature.
Certain.
Protective.
When her mother died two years later, Luke organized the funeral.
When Caroline’s friendships slowly disappeared, he explained that people became selfish when they married.
When she stopped working, he said stress was dangerous for her health.
When she woke some mornings unable to remember arguments from the night before, he told her she had always been forgetful.
Caroline looked down at her bruised arms.
“How long?”
Dr. Carter leaned forward.
“How long what?”
“How long have you suspected him?”
Dr. Carter’s eyes lowered.
“Since your first admission.”
Caroline stared at her.
“You believed he hurt me?”
“I suspected your injuries were inconsistent with a simple fall.”
“Then why did you let me leave with him?”
The question wounded Dr. Carter.
Caroline could see it.
“I asked you privately.”
“And?”
“You defended him.”
Caroline felt sick.
Dr. Carter continued.
“You told me the staircase was slippery. You became extremely distressed when I asked whether anyone had pushed you.”
“I said that?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“I didn’t know.”
Caroline looked at the pill bottle.
Now she had an idea.
“Was Luke in the hospital when I woke up?”
“Yes.”
“Was he alone with me?”
“Frequently.”
Detective Alvarez leaned forward.
“Mrs. Miller, do you remember anything from that hospitalization?”
“No.”
“Anything immediately before it?”
Caroline pressed her hands against her temples.
She tried.
At first, darkness.
Then fragments.
A blue wall.
A baby store bag.
Rain against a window.
Luke shouting.
What was he shouting?
She closed her eyes.
The image sharpened.
A small pair of yellow baby socks.
She was holding them.
Luke knocked them from her hand.
Her eyes opened.
“I bought socks.”
Everyone waited.
“Baby socks.”
Dr. Carter said nothing.
Caroline looked at her.
“They were yellow.”
A memory rushed forward.
Luke standing beside the kitchen table.
“You keep buying this useless crap.”
Caroline touching her stomach.
“It’s our baby.”
Luke pointing at an ultrasound picture.
“That doctor said girl.”
The memory vanished.
Caroline gasped.
Sarah reached for her.
“It was a girl.”
Dr. Carter closed her eyes briefly.
“Yes.”
Caroline began crying.
Not loudly.
The tears simply came.
“I had a daughter.”
“Yes.”
“What happened to her?”
Dr. Carter answered carefully.
“She died after the trauma.”
Caroline covered her mouth.
A daughter.
She had mourned nothing because she had remembered nothing.
Someone had stolen even her grief.
Detective Alvarez allowed the silence to remain.
Eventually Caroline whispered, “Did I name her?”
Dr. Carter went still.
Caroline saw the answer.
“I did.”
“Yes.”
“What was her name?”
Dr. Carter looked at the medical record.
Then back at Caroline.
“Grace.”
Caroline broke.
Sarah held her while she cried.
For several minutes nobody spoke.
Then Detective Alvarez’s phone vibrated.
She looked at the message.
Her expression became serious.
“What?”
Alvarez looked toward Dr. Carter.
“The lab ran a preliminary test on one of the older medication bottles.”
“And?”
“It doesn’t contain clonazepam.”
Caroline wiped her face.
“What does it contain?”
The detective looked at her.
“A combination of drugs.”
“What kind?”
“One is a powerful sedative.”
“And the other?”
Alvarez paused.
“A medication associated with memory impairment.”
Caroline stared at the bottle in her hand.
Luke had not simply lied about the past.
He had chemically erased pieces of it.
Then Dr. Carter turned another page in the old record.
Her face changed.
“What?”
Caroline watched her.
Dr. Carter slowly pulled a sheet from the file.
“There’s a second obstetric admission.”
Caroline stopped crying.
“What?”
“Two years before Grace.”
The room fell silent.
Caroline whispered, “Another pregnancy?”
May you like
Dr. Carter looked at her.
“Yes.”
