She stopped me. “Rachel, I think you need to get the rest from the hospital.”
“Why?”
One line I couldn’t make sense of.
“Because I don’t know what happened there.”
I looked at Luke, then Ben.
Neither of them spoke.
“Do you remember anything about that day?” Ben finally asked.
Something shifted in my memory.
You need to get the rest from the hospital.
A hospital room.
Mark holding my hand.
Me crying.
I stood. “I’m going to the hospital.”
“Right now?” Diane asked.
Something shifted in my memory.
“Yes.”
Luke grabbed his jacket. “I’m coming.”
“So am I,” Ben said.
“No. Please. Give me an hour.”
“Why?”
“Because I need facts before I tell any of us what this means.”
I’m going to the hospital.
***
I went to the hospital looking for one answer.
Instead, I found the first crack in a story I’d believed for eighteen years.
At the records desk, I slid the paper toward the woman.
“I need to find out where this came from.”
She studied it. “These records are from 2008?”
I found the first crack in a story.
“Yes. I gave birth here that year.”
She typed something into her computer. “Was your delivery complicated?”
“I hemorrhaged. I was sedated for part of it.”
She frowned at the screen. “Some records that old are archived off-site. I can request them.”
“How long?”
I gave birth here that year.
“Several days.”
“I can’t wait that long. Does anyone who worked in the maternity ward in 2008 still work here?”
She hesitated. “Susan. She’s a senior midwife now.”
The name tugged at something in my memory.
“Can I speak to her?”
