Chapter 7 - No Place To Go.
Getting discharged should have felt like progress. For Lena it felt like being pushed out onto ice.
The hospital kept Noah in the NICU, but Lena was medically cleared after four days. The social worker explained discharge instructions, incision care, postpartum warning signs, NICU visitation hours, and payment responsibilities in one exhausted stream of language.
Then came the housing question.
“Do you have somewhere safe to stay?” the social worker asked.
Lena opened her mouth and realized she didn’t know.
The townhouse was owned through Victor’s company. Her credit cards were linked to joint accounts Victor had already frozen. Her own savings had been bled down by pregnancy appointments, deductibles, and weeks of reduced work after the accident. Her mother was dead. Her older sister was in Arizona with three kids in a two-bedroom condo and no spare money. The few friends Lena still had nearby were people Victor had slowly helped her drift away from by calling them “drama.”
Paige arranged a short-term stay at a domestic violence nonprofit apartment near the hospital. It was clean, small, and furnished with unmatched chairs and a couch that folded out badly. Lena would have cried from shame once.
Now it looked like shelter.
Mason carried in the donated bassinet and one trash bag of Lena’s clothes. He didn’t comment on the building, the narrow stairs, or the way Lena had almost nothing with her except hospital paperwork and a phone charger.
He just asked, “Need groceries?”
She hated how quickly tears came these days. “I don’t even know what I need.”
“That’s okay,” he said. “Most people don’t.”
That night the apartment was too quiet. Lena stared at the ceiling and listened for Noah even though he was still across town in the NICU. Her body kept waking in panic, sure she had heard him cry.
At nine the next morning Paige called.
“Victor filed for emergency temporary guardianship.”
Lena sat straight up in bed. “On what grounds?”
“He claims you’re emotionally unstable, financially unsecured, and influenced by a hostile former employee with a grievance against the family business.”
“Mason?”
“Yes.”
Lena let out one short disbelieving sound. “He tried to kill me, and I’m the unstable one?”
“That,” Paige said, “is exactly the argument I plan to make. But we have a hearing in forty-eight hours.”
When Lena got to the NICU later that afternoon, the nurse at the desk hesitated before letting her in.
“There was a visitor this morning asking about baby release protocols.”
Lena froze. “Who?”
The nurse checked the log.
May you like
Then looked up.
“Victor Hale.”
