Chapter 6: The Clinic on Aldermoor Lane
The address was forty minutes outside the city.
I drove with Lily in the back seat, her small hand wrapped around the strap of her seatbelt, her eyes on the window.
She hadn't asked me any questions since we'd left the house.
That worried me more than if she'd been crying.
"Lily."
"Yes, Dad."
"You did the right thing.
Calling for me.
All of it."
She was quiet for a moment.
"Grandma said if I told anyone she'd say I was lying."
My hands tightened on the wheel.
"When did she say that?"
"When she put me in the freezer.
She said nobody believes little kids." She turned from the window.
"Do you believe me?"
"Every word."
She turned back to the window.
"Okay."
The clinic was not what I expected.
No sign on the gate.
A long gravel driveway behind a high hedge.
The kind of place that did not want to be found by anyone who wasn't already looking.
A receptionist met me at the door.
Young.
Composed.
She asked for my name before I gave it.
"Mr.
Marsh.
Dr.
Voss is expecting you."
"I want to see my wife first."
"Of course.
If you'll follow me."
She led me down a corridor that smelled of antiseptic and cut flowers.
Lily stayed close at my side, her fingers looped through mine.
Sarah was in a room at the end of the hall.
She was sitting up in a bed, still in her own clothes, a blanket across her lap.
She looked pale and confused but she was awake.
The moment she saw me her face broke.
"Daniel."
I crossed the room.
She grabbed my arm with both hands.
"I didn't agree to come here," she said.
"I want you to know that.
I was dizzy and I sat down and the next thing I knew there was a man I didn't know telling me I needed rest and observation and your mother was standing there saying it was for the best."
"I know." I sat on the edge of the bed.
"We're leaving."
"She told me you knew.
She told me you'd called ahead and arranged it."
"She lied."
Sarah's breath came out in a long, shaking release.
"I thought—" She stopped.
"I thought you'd decided I wasn't coping.
I thought you'd agreed with her."
"I would never."
She looked at Lily.
Lily climbed up onto the bed and pressed herself against Sarah's side without a word, and Sarah wrapped both arms around her and held on.
I stood up and went to find Dr.
Voss.
He was waiting in a small office at the end of the corridor.
He stood when I came in.
He was in his sixties, silver-haired, the kind of man who was accustomed to rooms deferring to him.
"Mr.
Marsh.
Please sit down."
"I'll stand.
My wife is leaving.
Right now."
"She came here voluntarily—"
"She did not.
She was brought here while she was disoriented, without her phone, without her keys, without her husband's knowledge.
I don't know what my mother told you or what arrangement exists between you, but it ends today."
He looked at me steadily.
"Your mother was concerned about Sarah's mental state.
She felt that a period of supervised rest—"
"My mother is not Sarah's next of kin.
I am." I put both hands on the desk.
"If you try to prevent my wife from leaving this building, I will call the police from this room, and I will make sure that every licensing board that governs your practice hears exactly how a patient was brought here."
The steadiness in his face cracked.
Just slightly.
May you like
Just enough.
"I'll have the discharge paperwork prepared," he said.
