Eric approached us and the police officer turned his head. For the first time, I saw panic register in my husband’s face.
“What are you doing here?” he asked, forcing himself to laugh for the first time that day. “Why is there an officer?”
There was no reply for a few moments and my mother crossed her arms. Megan moved in front of me before I could get a word in.
“Claire was brought here after being abandoned on the side of the road while she was eight months pregnant.”
Eric’s jaw clenched.
“Come on! That’s a lie.”
The police officer looked down at his notebook.
“Then tell me what really happened, sir.”
Eric immediately switched his tone of voice. I recognized that voice—the nice smile, the calm voice, the rehearsed performance.
“This is exaggerated,” he said. “Claire has been very emotional lately and her pregnancy has been difficult for her. When she asked me to pull over, I did. I thought she needed to have some space from me.”
I stared at him. Space is what he chose to call it. Abandonment isn’t the way to describe it. Argument in front of the general public? Leaving me without my mobile phone or my purse would not help his case.
The officer listened patiently and then asked, “Did she have her mobile phone?”
Eric hesitated.
“No.”
“Did she have her purse?”
“No.”
“So did she have any way of requesting assistance?”
The silence seemed to stretch out forever, but in reality was only a few seconds. The police officer wrote some notes and Eric began to lose his air of confidence.
“You don’t get it!” Eric shouted. “We had an argument.”
“You abandoned a woman who is heavily pregnant, had no means of transport, no means of communication and no means of obtaining medical assistance,” the police officer said.
This time Eric had no response and my mother stepped closer to him.“You should be grateful your daughter was found by a stranger.”
Eric glanced toward me and for a second, I could have sworn I saw regret in his eyes. But it wasn’t regret at all; it was fear. Now, there were witnesses. Dana had given her statement and the ambulance report exists. The hospital documented everything.
When the officer left, Eric stood at the entrance, uncomfortable and unwanted. Eventually, he turned to me.
“Claire, can we speak privately?”
“No.”