Chapter 8 - MY FATHER CAME HOME
My parents reached the hospital forty-eight hours after the twins were born.
Mom ran into my room first.
She wrapped her arms around me carefully and sobbed into my shoulder.
Dad stopped three feet from the bed.
He looked at the incision bandage.
The IV.
The bruising from blood draws.
Then he looked at Sophie sleeping beside me.
His eyes filled.
I had only seen my father cry twice in my entire life.
Once when his mother died.
Once when I got married.
This was the third time.
“Where’s Caleb?”
“In the NICU.”
Dad nodded.
“Take me to him.”
We stood beside Caleb’s incubator twenty minutes later.
He looked impossibly small beneath the wires and sensors.
Dad placed one hand against the glass.
“He’s a fighter.”
“He shouldn’t have had to be.”
My voice cracked.
Dad turned toward me.
“No.”
“He shouldn’t.”
Then he said something I expected even less.
“I owe you an apology.”
“For what?”
“For teaching you that keeping peace was always the mature choice.”
I stared at him.
“When you told me Travis’s family was difficult, I kept saying marriage required compromise.”
Dad swallowed.
“I should have asked whether you were the only one compromising.”
I started crying.
He held me.
That afternoon, Travis tried to enter the hospital again.
My father happened to be in the lobby.
Security later told me the entire encounter lasted less than a minute.
Travis approached him.
“Mr. Bennett, I need to see my wife.”
Dad looked at him.
“My daughter.”
“Yes.”
“Your wife.”
“Yes.”
“The woman you abandoned while she was in emergency labor.”
Travis lowered his voice.
“It wasn’t like that.”
Dad stepped closer.
“Then explain what it was like.”
Travis had no answer.
Security moved between them.
My father did not touch him.
He simply said one final sentence.
“If my daughter ever decides to speak to you again, it will be because she chooses to.”
“Not because you order her to.”
That evening, Rebecca called.
The emergency custody request had been granted temporarily.
Travis could not remove the children from my care.
Contact would be determined after a hearing.
I should have felt safe.
Instead, Rebecca’s next words chilled me.
“Claire, Travis hired an attorney.”
“So?”
“He is claiming you were medically unstable before labor.”
I gripped the phone.
May you like
“What does that mean?”
“He’s preparing to say your version of events cannot be trusted.”
