Chapter 5

I’d barely had any time to rationalize the intense and unexpected flood of emotions when a voice came across the intercom, “Code Silver: Nursery viewing room.”

The doctor I was speaking to had a pager go off and I knew. I stood and asked, “Which way to my daughter?”

“You’ll get in the way of security.”

“She is my daughter.”

“And you’re holding your other one.”

She stood between me and the door. If I hadn’t had Emily over my shoulder, I would’ve driven her into the wall. After some pleading his pager went off again and he checked it and led me to the nursery.

Tabby was being led away in cuffs. When she saw me, she let out a guttural howl and screamed, “I will kill you! I will kill you and that bitch that took her away from me. It’s all your fault! If you’d just killed yourself or stayed away from us, she wouldn’t be dead.”

My brain began to question the logical leaps in that. I had been states away and they’d followed me. I’d said I never wanted to see them again and they pulled the bullshit with Raven and showed up on my doorstep.

I watched her try to pull away from the cops and get face planted into a door. I turned to the Doctor, “Is my daughter okay?”

He led me into the room, one infant was being examined and pictures taken. The doctor tried to block me, but I sidestepped and got closer. The woman examining her said, “She’s okay. Marigold tackled her before she got to her. She wasn’t armed luckily.”

“Marigold?”

“She’s being treated, that woman hit her pretty hard.”

“Okay, I need the names and contact information for everyone that saw anything, I don’t suppose this place has cameras?”

She shook her head and the Doctor approached from behind me, “Not yet. In a few months they’ll be installing some.”

“Lovely. Can I hold my other daughter?”

“Does she have a name?”

I thought for a moment, “Joan April Phillips.”

It was a mess after that. I contacted Mike and he got copies of the police reports and had his staff interview the hospital workers. With the threats and attempt to get to Joan a restraining order was issued and I was granted a temporary full custody order till a full hearing was scheduled to happen in a few months.

I sent a rather large bouquet of flowers to Marigold. She turned out to be a septuagenarian volunteer.

I ended up breaking my rules. I went back to my Podunk hometown for April’s funeral. I ended up having to ‘forgive’ my mother as I needed the help dealing with two infants and a more than full time job. I ended up giving her my room and sleeping in the other bedroom which I set up as a nursery. It made sure I went to work tired, but it had to be done.

Tabby managed to make bail on the pending assault charge against the hospital worker. I started receiving threatening phone calls and letters. My mother at one point expressed her disbelief that Tabby could’ve gone that far off the deep end. I pointed out that her making a false accusation of rape against her brother to clear her way into her sister’s pants was the first clue. She didn’t bring it up again.

I reported each instance to the police. It didn’t do much aside from creating a paper trail for Mike to work with. Things ended getting worse; the apartment was broken into while my mother had taken the girls out to run some errands and a dead cat was placed on the shop’s door.

Moira suggested moving back to the shithole and I considered it, but then we wouldn’t have even the slightest bit of police protection. Staying was safer. I had to jump through a few hoops to buy a handgun, but I did what was necessary. Shooting was one of the things my father taught me in the quarry. I doubt he’d ever have considered I might turn a gun on ‘family.’

Tabby skipped her trial for the assault charge. Allegedly, the authorities couldn’t locate her. The hate mail still coming every day indicated she was still nearby.

There was a lull for about a month. At the end of that I came home after a rather grueling work week. I’d put in around 95 hours on top of being on night duties with my precious two betrayals. As such I stumbled into my apartment and found the door open. I stepped in and could tell something was wrong. I’d kept the pistol in a lockbox inside the closet off the main living area. I retrieved it. I pulled out my phone and dialed 911 and set it in my pocket without having hit send.

I moved straight towards my daughters’ room. I entered the room and saw Tabby. She was holding a kitchen knife. It was only then that I saw my mother on the floor. I literally couldn’t afford to deal with that thought.

I hit send and raised the weapon, “Step away from my daughters.”

She looked at me, “Which one is ours?”

“I’m not going to tell you that.”

“I’ve forgiven you, but not that bitch. I figured out the best way to honor April. We’ll get married and raise our daughter together.”

“You’re a lesbian and fucking insane, not to mention my sister.”

“It’s what she wanted. The three of us together. Four of us. Us and our daughter.”

“What did you do to our mother?”

“I didn’t mean to ... she just wouldn’t tell me which girl was ours and which one murdered my wife.”