Chloe, Look at Me
Chapter 02 - Chloe, Look at Me
Daniel reached her before the courthouse deputy did.
He dropped to both knees on the wet marble, one hand hovering over Chloe's shoulder without touching. Blood had gathered near her hairline, bright against the gray step.
"Chloe, look at me."
She found his face above her.
"The baby," she whispered.
"I know."
"No, you don't. She's not moving."
Daniel looked toward the deputy.
"Ambulance. Now."
"It's coming."
"Then call again."
His voice stayed level, but the deputy moved faster.
Daniel took Chloe's hand and pressed two fingers against the inside of her wrist. He wasn't a doctor, but standing helpless would have broken him.
"Tell me where it hurts."
"My stomach."
"Anywhere else?"
"Everywhere."
He swallowed once.
"Don't move."
At the top of the steps, Vivian was crying into Ethan's shoulder.
Chloe saw them upside down beyond Daniel's arm. Ethan looked toward her and then away, as though the sight of what had happened belonged to someone else.
Daniel followed her gaze.
His face hardened.
"Not them," he said. "Stay with me."
The baby remained still.
Chloe dug her fingernails into Daniel's palm.
"Make her move."
He leaned closer.
"Do you remember Mom's funeral?"
"What?"
"You wore those awful red shoes because she bought them for you."
"You were nine. You wouldn't take them off even when they cut your heels."
Chloe saw rain on black umbrellas. A church basement with ham sandwiches no one ate. Daniel at eighteen, standing beside her in a borrowed suit that pulled across his shoulders.
After everyone left, he had knelt in front of her near the coat rack and tied one loose red shoelace.
*I'm still here,* he had said. *I'm not going anywhere.*
"I remember," Chloe breathed.
"Good. Look at me now."
A faint movement touched the inside of her abdomen.
Chloe's mouth opened.
"She moved."
Daniel closed his eyes for half a second.
Then the paramedics arrived.
---
The ambulance smelled of plastic, antiseptic, and rainwater.
A paramedic fastened a monitor against Chloe's abdomen. Poppy's heartbeat filled the vehicle.
Daniel sat near her feet, holding Chloe's cracked locket inside a clear belongings bag.
"Don't lose that," she said.
"I won't."
At St. Catherine Medical Center, nurses moved Chloe beneath fluorescent lights, speaking in clipped phrases.
Thirty weeks. Fourteen steps.
Abdominal pain. No obvious bleeding.
Dr. Naomi Reyes arrived in navy scrubs, pushing her reading glasses onto her head.
"Chloe, I'm here."
"The heartbeat is okay."
"I heard. That's good."
"But?"
"But you had significant abdominal trauma. We're checking the placenta, fluid, and blood flow."
Cold gel spread across Chloe's skin. On the screen, Poppy's profile appeared with one small fist near her mouth.
"She's measuring appropriately."
"Is the placenta attached?"
"Yes."
"There's a small collection of blood near the edge. I want continuous monitoring for placental separation and early labor."
"Can she die from this?"
Dr. Reyes looked directly at her.
"A severe separation can threaten both of you. I don't see that now, but the fall created a real risk."
Chloe turned her wedding ring beneath the blanket.
Once.
Twice.
Her third turn stopped halfway.
Dr. Reyes covered Chloe's hand.
"You protected your abdomen."
"I couldn't stop falling."
"No. You couldn't."
---
For twelve minutes after Dr. Reyes left, Chloe was alone.
The door clicked shut. Poppy's heartbeat kept printing across the monitor while Chloe stared at the ceiling tile above the bed.
Her control left without warning.
She covered her mouth and cried into the hospital pillow, terrified by how close she had come to losing a child who did not yet know daylight.
No witness. No careful wording. Nothing to prove.
"I almost lost you," she whispered.
Poppy kicked beneath the monitor strap.
Chloe pressed both palms over the movement until her breathing slowed.
Then she washed her face with a damp cloth, memorized the monitor number, and reached for the locket.
*Now get up.*
Daniel entered two hours later carrying her locket and a cup of terrible hospital coffee.
Chloe lay angled on her left side. Two monitors were strapped across her abdomen, their cords running to a screen that printed thin paper in slow folds.
"Where is Ethan?" she asked.
"Talking to police."
"And Vivian?"
"Also talking to police."
Daniel set the coffee down untouched.
"She says you slipped."
Chloe stared at him.
"She pushed me with both hands."
"I know."
"Did Ethan say that?"
Daniel removed his suit jacket and laid it over the back of a vinyl chair.
"He says he was behind her and couldn't see clearly."
Chloe watched the green numbers change from 142 to 139.
"He was looking right at us."
"I know."
"He saw."
"I know."
Daniel took the locket from its bag. The clasp had bent, and the glass was split across the photograph.
"Mom would be furious," Chloe said.
"At the locket?"
"At me for wearing low shoes in the rain."
Daniel gave a rough breath that almost became a laugh.
He sat beside her now.
"I should've known he was doing this to you."
"You knew about the affair."
"I knew the version you told me."
"The version where I had it under control."
"You were protecting me from committing a felony."
"Mostly."
Daniel looked down at their joined hands.
"I was inside the building. One floor away."
"That isn't your fault."
"I heard the scream."
"So did fifty other people."
"You're not fifty other people."
Chloe studied his face.
"Don't turn this into a promise you failed," she said.
His thumb moved once across her knuckles.
"What do you want me to turn it into?"
"A case."
Daniel looked up.
Chloe's voice had gone quiet.
"Start with what she said. Every word."
She looked toward his legal pad.
"Then Ethan's position on the steps and the people nearby."
"You need to rest."
"I need to remember before they change it."
He reached for a legal pad from the windowsill.
"All right."
Chloe reconstructed the hallway and stairs.
Vivian's cream coat. The blue folder.
Ethan's words. The courier near the parking sign.
Daniel wrote without interrupting.
When she finished, he drew a line beneath the last sentence.
"The blue folder matters," he said.
"I don't know why yet."
"Neither do I."
A knock came at the open door.
Detective Mara Okafor stood in the hallway wearing a dark green coat and carrying a small notebook.
"Mrs. Bennett?"
Chloe nodded.
"I'm Detective Okafor. I need to ask you a few questions when you're able."
Daniel stood.
"I'm Daniel Bennett. Her attorney and her brother."
Okafor looked at him for one second longer than courtesy required.
"I know who you are."
"Then you know she isn't answering anything without me present."
"I wasn't planning to ask her to."
The detective stepped inside and glanced at the monitors.
"Ms. Cross says you lost your balance during an argument. She says she reached toward you, and you grabbed her coat."
Chloe's fingers closed around the broken locket.
"That's a lie."
Okafor opened her notebook.
"Mr. Bennett says he couldn't see whose hands were where."
Chloe looked past her toward the hallway.
Ethan stood beyond the glass partition.
Vivian was beside him, wearing his coat over her shoulders.
Detective Okafor followed Chloe's gaze.
May you like
"Before we begin," she said, "you should know they're already telling a different story."
Vivian had reached the police first.
