“Mr. Aston,” the cop says, his muffled voice coming through the closed window. We’re only like three feet away from him. “Mr. Aston, Mr. Li here just needs to have a few words with his daughter. Can we come in?”
And then an ambulance rolls in behind the cops. What the f**k is going on?
“Ford! Are you listening to me?” Ashleigh practically screams it and poor Kate begins to wail.
“What?” I’m still not listening because two paramedics get out of the ambulance and another guy with a suit. I finally turn to Ash. “Tell me what the f**k is happening.”
But before Ashleigh can answer, Mr. Li is standing in front of the window. “She’s very sick, Mr. Aston. I know you’ve taken good care of her, but you need to know she is very sick.”
I swear, I almost fall over. “Sick how?”
“Don’t listen, Ford!” Ashleigh is pleading. “Please, don’t listen. I’m sorry for what happened, I was not thinking clearly, but please, don’t listen!”
Mr. Li takes out a folded piece of pink paper and Ash loses it. She starts crying and pleading with me. Her father holds it out in front of the window and I can’t help myself. I open the window, push the screen aside, and take it. Ashleigh goes wild, jumping with the baby trying to get it from me.
“Ashleigh,” I say sternly. “Stop it. Right now.”
“I don’t want you to see that, I don’t want you to read that!” She’s hysterical.
“OK.”
She stops, like literally holds her breath for a few seconds. “OK?”
I nod. Mr. Li is talking to me, but I reach over and close the window back up. “But you need to tell me what’s going on. What’s in here.” I hold up the paper and she snatches it away. “Tell me what it says and tell me why all these people are here. Why is your father saying you’re sick? Do you have a medical condition?”
“Tell them to leave first. Tell them to leave!”
“I’ll tell you what she wrote in the note, Mr. Aston,” Li says. When I look back he’s opened the window so his voice is loud and clear.
Ashleigh crumples and I reach down and grab Kate before she hits her head on the white tiles.
I look back to Li. “You need to leave. Whatever it is you have to say, I’ll hear it from her first, and I’ll hear it when she’s ready. Not like this.”
“We need to take the baby, Mr. Aston. Ashleigh,” her sister says in a soothing voice from outside. “Ashleigh, honey. We’re concerned about the baby. If you don’t let us take her, we’re going to do what we talked about last time. Do you understand, Ashleigh?”
Kate grabs at my face, still upset and crying. “You can’t take the kid,” I say, shaking my head.
“Mr. Aston,” the cop chimes in. “Miss Li has written at least two suicide notes in the past three weeks. She’s highly unstable and the family”—he stresses this word, like he’s reminding me that I’m not family—“will back off and not pursue an involuntary psychiatric detention if Ashleigh allows herself to be evaluated and hands the child over to be cared for by her sister.”
Oh. Fuck.
“I have authority to hold her, Mr. Aston. Pursuant to California Welfare and Institutions Code, Section 5150, she might need a mandatory seventy-two-hour detention for evaluation and treatment in a psychiatric facility. Now, the family is willing to forgo that extreme measure if Ashleigh agrees to come home and bring the baby with her so the family doctor can monitor her.”
“We only want to keep her safe, Mr. Aston,” her father says. “Please open the door and allow the officers in. We do not want to commit her.”
I just stare at him.
“Ashleigh,” he says calmly. “Open the door and come home, or we will be forced to send you away for an evaluation. It’s for your own good, we only want to keep you safe. You’re been running wild for years and now there’s another life involved. A baby who is my own blood. And I will not stand by and let you endanger her.” He looks up to me. “No offense, Mr. Aston. I realize you’ve taken very good care of them, I’m grateful. But this is over now. She’s coming home, whether or not we have to—”
The door opens and Ashleigh walks out. “I’ll go, just please don’t take me away from Kate. She’s all I have left, please don’t take me away from Kate. I’ll go.”
The sister comes in and pries a red-faced Kate from my arms and she starts to wail.
Oh God. This shit is really happening.
I stand there in a state of shock and watch her being loaded into the black car. And then two minutes later the driveway is empty.
My house is empty.
And they are gone.
Chapter Forty-One
I stand there looking out at the driveway, waiting for the world to rewind and bring them back. But that doesn’t happen. What does happen is a van drives up, knocks on the door, then drops off a box that says Four Seasons Las Vegas.
Our stuff. But there’s no our anymore.
Holy f**king shit. What just happened? Did I freeze? I didn’t say anything. I was stunned silent. What could I say? They wanted to incarcerate her in a psychiatric facility. I spy the folded pink note on the floor, forgotten in the midst of chaos. I walk over and pick it up and then grab the box from the front door. I take them both back to the couch and sit down to try and calm my racing heart.
I don’t want to read this note, I really don’t. It feels so invasive, like I’m betraying her if I read it. But I have to. I need more information. I unfold it slowly, and then take in the sight of her handwriting. It’s a beautiful cursive with lots of flowing lines and loops.