Chapter 2 - THE NEEDLE IN THE FOYER
I twisted away before the doctor could reach Tanner.
The syringe missed his arm and scraped across my jacket.
Maeve slammed her hand against the doctor’s wrist.
The syringe fell onto the rug.
“You do not inject a child without examining him,” she shouted.
The two attendants grabbed her.
Tanner cried out.
“Let her go!”
Meredith rushed forward.
“Lincoln, look at what you are doing.”
I stared at the syringe on the floor.
“What is in that?”
The doctor straightened his cuffs.
“A standard sedative.”
“What dosage?”
He did not answer.
Maeve struggled against the attendants.
“He filled it before entering the house.”
The doctor looked at Meredith.
It was only a glance.
But it lasted long enough.
They knew each other.
I shifted Tanner higher in my arms.
“Everyone leaves my house now.”
The taller attendant stepped closer.
“We have a court-supported transport directive.”
“You have a forged signature.”
Meredith’s voice sharpened.
“Lincoln, you signed it last night.”
“I did not.”
“You had been drinking.”
“I have not had a drink in eleven years.”
For the first time, uncertainty flickered across the attendant’s face.
Maeve used the distraction to pull free.
She reached the front door and opened it.
A siren sounded in the distance.
“I called county emergency services before they took my phone,” she said.
Meredith looked toward the windows.
Her jaw tightened.
The clinic doctor hurried toward the fallen syringe.
Maeve got there first.
She kicked it beneath a console table.
“Leave it for the paramedics.”
The doctor’s expression turned ugly.
“You are interfering with treatment.”
“No,” Maeve said.
“I am preserving evidence.”
The front door burst open.
Two paramedics entered with a police officer behind them.
The officer took in the scene.
A child crying in my arms.
Two clinic attendants.
A nurse with a torn sleeve.
A syringe on the floor.
And my wife standing beside forged commitment papers.
“Who called this in?” he asked.
“I did,” Maeve said.
Meredith stepped forward.
“My stepson is experiencing a severe psychiatric episode.”
“He is also burning with fever,” I said.
The paramedic touched Tanner’s forehead.
His expression changed immediately.
“We need to move.”
Meredith blocked the stretcher.
“He has an established treatment plan at Ashbury.”
The paramedic looked at her.
“His pulse is dangerously high.”
“He becomes agitated around strangers.”
“He needs an emergency department.”
The police officer picked up the syringe using a gloved hand.
“Who brought this?”
The clinic doctor raised his chin.
“I did.”
“Was it administered?”
“No.”
Maeve pointed toward the cup upstairs.
“There is a second sample in his room.”
Meredith moved toward the staircase.
The officer stopped her.
“Ma’am, stay here.”
Her voice became wounded.
“This is my home.”
“Then staying in one room should be easy.”
The paramedics placed Tanner on the stretcher.
He reached for me.
I held his hand.
“I’m coming with you.”
Meredith stepped forward.
“So am I.”
Tanner recoiled so violently that the monitor cable came loose.
“No!”
His terror filled the foyer.
“Don’t let her come!”
Meredith stared at him.
Not with sadness.
With fury.
The officer noticed.
So did I.
Maeve moved beside the stretcher.
“I will ride with him.”
The paramedic nodded.
As they rolled Tanner outside, Meredith leaned close to me.
“You are making a terrible mistake.”
I looked into the face of the woman I had trusted with my son.
“No.”
I lowered my voice.
“My mistake was marrying you.”
Her mouth tightened.
May you like
Then she whispered something that turned my blood cold.
“You still have no idea what Tanner signed.”
