Chapter 4 - The Anatomy of a Lie
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The room fell dead silent. Luke stared at the hospital phone as if it had grown teeth and bitten him.
Marissa ended the call only after Evelyn promised to contact the front desk the moment she arrived. Then, the nurse placed the receiver back on its cradle and pointed at Luke.
"You need to wait outside," she said.
Luke puffed out his chest. "I am her husband. I have rights. You are making medical decisions without understanding the fragile state of our marriage."
Dr. Shah stepped in, her posture rigid. "Caroline has asked for privacy. You will wait outside, or I will have security remove you."
Luke looked at me, searching for the old Caroline. He was waiting for the woman who would lower her eyes, apologize for causing a scene, and beg him to stay so he wouldn't be angry later. I stared back at him, my eyes wide and unblinking. I did not apologize.
The security officer in the hallway stepped fully into the doorway. Defeated but calculating, Luke grabbed his coat and walked out, throwing me one last venomous glare.
Once the door clicked shut, I realized I had been holding my breath.
Dr. Shah pulled up a chair beside my bed. "My name is Dr. Shah. I am going to explain what we know. I’ll be careful. Stop me if it’s too much."
She explained the severity of the burns on my chest and stomach. The boiling water and steam had caused catastrophic damage, but it was treatable. There would be skin grafts and weeks of agonizing recovery.
Then, she opened a thick yellow folder.
"This is separate from the burns," she said, her voice softening. "We reviewed the medical history your husband provided. He told us you had experienced several early miscarriages, and that you were diagnosed as permanently infertile."
"That’s what the doctors said," I whispered.
"Which doctors, Caroline?"
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I tried to think, but the memories were a blur of waiting rooms, clipboards, and Luke holding my hand, answering every question for me. "I don't know. Luke handled the paperwork."
"We requested your records," Dr. Shah said carefully. "The imaging we performed today proves you have been pregnant more than once. And it proves that at least some of those pregnancies progressed much further than the dates listed in your files. There is no evidence you are infertile."
