“Tell me exactly what your mother asked you to do,” the officer said.
Karen looked toward the elevator doors.
“She told me to wait here until she called.”
The officer wrote down the time. Karen glanced at the folded receipt again.
“She never said
I was supposed to take Leo.”
Upstairs, the nurse had brought Leo back to me before I could ask for him twice. He was wrapped in the hospital blanket, his face turned toward my shoulder, while another nurse checked the bandage on my arm and asked whether I was dizzy.
“I need Daniel,” I said.
The nurse handed me my phone.
I called him, and he answered on the second ring.
“Elena?”
“Your mother took Leo out of his bassinet.”
There was a pause.
“She what?”
“She picked him up and would not put him back.”
The nurse stopped adjusting the blanket and looked at me.
