Michael turned back to me.
“Catherine, ask him to leave.
We need to discuss how your behavior affected me tonight.”
I looked down at my daughter.
Her fingers had curled around the edge of my hospital gown.
For years, I had responded to Michael’s anger by apologizing before I fully understood what I had supposedly done.
I apologized when dinner was late, when I asked where he had been, when his mother criticized me, and when his company dinners interrupted our anniversary.
That reflex rose inside me now.
Then I remembered Amber’s voice.
Your dramatic labor situation isn’t his responsibility tonight.
I looked at Michael.
“Did you give Amber access to my medical records?”
The color in his face shifted so slightly that Rachel might not have noticed.
I did.
“What are you talking about?” he asked.
“A patient proxy authorization bearing my signature.”
Michael glanced toward the folder.
Only for a second.
But it was enough.
“I handle our insurance,” he said.
“You sign things and forget them constantly.”
Daniel spoke for the first time.
“This was not an insurance document.”
Michael’s eyes narrowed.
“I was speaking to my wife.”
“And I am speaking as her physician.
The authorization allowed a third party to enter her chart.”
Michael shrugged too quickly.
“Then she must have signed it.
Catherine has been emotional and forgetful throughout the pregnancy.”
Rachel’s hands clenched.
“Say that again.”
“Rachel, stay out of our marriage.”
“You brought Amber into the marriage.
I’m already less of an outsider than she is.”
Michael looked at me, expecting me to silence my sister.
I did not.
Instead, I asked, “Who witnessed my signature?”
He paused.
“What?”
“You said I signed the authorization.
Who witnessed it?”
“I don’t remember.”
“The witness was Amber.”
Michael’s face hardened.
“That does not prove anything.”
“It proves your assistant signed a document that gave her access to my prenatal records.”
“She was helping with administrative work.”
“My pregnancy was not company administration.”
His mouth opened, but Daniel interrupted.
“The account connected to Amber’s authorization accessed Catherine’s chart at 2:41 this morning.”
Michael’s gaze snapped toward him.
“You have no right to accuse my employee of anything.”
“I have not accused her,” Daniel said.
“I stated what the access log recorded.”
Michael took out his phone.
