His assistant held up a photocopy, hands shaking so badly the paper rattled.
"Your wife... your wife, she—"
"What has she done now? Hasn't she caused enough trouble?" Joel cut him off, impatient.
The assistant dropped to his knees on the spot.
"She got rid of the baby!"
The knife in Joel's hand froze mid-stroke against the apple, and the blade sliced into his finger.
Blood dripped onto the carpet.
"What the hell are you talking about?"
The assistant held out the photocopy.
"This is the family-signature archive copy the hospital just sent over."
"The form you signed in the bathroom last night wasn't a prenatal checkup confirmation..."
Joel snatched the paper from his hand.
Black ink on white paper.
CONSENT FOR LABOR INDUCTION — PATIENT AUTHORIZATION
In the bottom right corner, his own bold, slashing signature.
His mind went white.
"No... that's impossible!"
He tore out of the room like a man unhinged.
At the doors of the surgical ward, he seized a nurse by the shoulders.
"Where's Pauline? Where is she?!"
The nurse flinched.
"Miss Sullivan... she's already left. The induction is done."
"The baby? Where's my baby?!" Joel's eyes were bloodshot, his voice a raw shout.
The nurse pointed toward the medical-waste corridor beside them.
"Already gone. Medical waste."
Joel's legs gave out and he sank to his knees.
