Because she had shown up at our house the night before out of nowhere, saying she missed Elijah. She had barely touched her coffee. She kept checking the windows. At one point I reached past her for a dish towel and she flinched so hard I actually stopped.
I had noticed.
I just hadn’t understood.
I looked at the officer. “Where is she?”
“County General,” he said. “Paramedics found her in her car two streets over. She was having a panic attack. She asked for you.”
He gave me a look that said Yes, you.
I got to the hospital 20 minutes later.
Diane was in a curtained ER room, sitting up in bed in a hospital gown with a blanket over her lap. Without the coat and makeup and attitude, she looked smaller than I had ever seen her.
There was a bruise near her jaw.
Another on her forearm.
I stopped in the doorway.
She looked up at me, and for the first time since I’d known her, she didn’t look annoyed or superior or ready to correct me.
She looked scared.
“You came,” she said.
I crossed my arms. “Start talking.”
Her mouth trembled. “I didn’t know who else to trust.”
That landed harder than I wanted it to.
I sat in the chair by the bed. “What happened?”
She stared at her hands. “His name is Ray.”
I had heard the name before. A man she had started seeing after years alone. She always brushed Ben off when he asked about him.
“He’s nice. Don’t make a thing out of it. You’re not my father.”
Now she said, “He wasn’t like this at first.”
Of course he wasn’t.
I said, “What did he do?”
“At first it was little things. He wanted to know where I was. He said I spent too much money. He moved things around and claimed I was getting forgetful. Then he started taking my keys so I wouldn’t go out when I was upset. Then my bank card. Then my phone passwords.” Her voice got thinner. “Then he started getting violent.”
I looked away for a second because I was so angry I couldn’t trust my face.
“The first time,” she said, “he cried after. I believed that mattered.”
It was quiet for a beat.
Then I said, “Why didn’t you tell Ben?”
She let out a bitter little laugh. “Because Ben charges at things. You know that. He would have gone there furious. Ray would have denied everything. It would have exploded.”
