Chief Mike stared at me for one long second while Leo screamed in my mother-in-law’s arms.
Then his posture changed.
The hand he had been raising toward his belt dropped to his side.
“Your Honor?”
Mrs.
Sterling blinked.
I saw the words reach her without making sense.
One of the guards stopped halfway toward my bed.
Another looked from Mike to me and immediately lowered his hands.
Mrs.
Sterling gave a sharp, nervous laugh.
“What did you call her?”
Mike did not answer her.
His eyes went to my split lip, the blood on my hospital gown, and the way I was bracing myself against the rail because standing upright was almost impossible.
“Ma’am,” he said to Mrs.
Sterling, his voice suddenly controlled, “put the infant back in the bassinet.”
She tightened her grip on Leo.
“No.
You don’t understand.
She’s unstable.
She tried to hurt him.”
Leo’s cries grew louder.
I could barely breathe through the pain in my abdomen, but my voice came out steady.
“Chief, please take my son from her.”
Mrs.
Sterling looked at me as though I had performed a magic trick.
“Why is he calling you that?”
I ignored her.
Mike stepped forward.
“Mrs.
Sterling, give me the baby now.”
For the first time since entering the room, she hesitated.
She looked at the four guards.
Then at me.
Then at the open packet on the tray table.
Her confidence began to crack.
“This is a family matter.”
“No,” Mike said.
“At this moment, it’s a hospital security matter.”
She tried another tactic.
“My son pays for all of this.
That woman doesn’t even work.”
Mike’s eyes flicked toward me again.
I knew him from courthouse security briefings and several high-risk proceedings.
He had seen me on the bench.
He had stood near the courtroom doors while defendants were escorted in and jurors were moved through secured corridors.
When he left courthouse security for the hospital, I had congratulated him in passing.
To him, my face was not mysterious.
To Mrs.
Sterling, apparently, it still was.
One of the guards carefully approached Leo.
“Ma’am, I’m going to take the baby.”
Mrs.
Sterling stepped backward.
That movement ended whatever doubt remained in the room.
Mike’s voice hardened.
