My Harvard-Law Mom Slapped Me Over 3×4—So I Stripped Away Her Elite Title Overnight Chapter 08

My Harvard-Law Mom Slapped Me Over 3×4—So I Stripped Away Her Elite Title Overnight Chapter 08

Then he turned and walked out.

Grandma followed.

I caught up and floated beside them.

Grandpa reached the end of the hallway, leaned against the wall, and bent over.

His shoulders shook. Not a sound.

Grandma came up behind him and hugged him.

Two white-haired people, embracing at the end of a hospital corridor.

I crouched at their feet and reached for Grandpa’s shoelace.

I couldn’t reach. I couldn’t reach anything.

The next morning, new faces appeared in the hospital hallway.

Reporters. Social workers. And a middle-aged woman in plain clothes with an ID that said Child Protective Services.

I floated up to the ceiling and memorized every face.

I don’t know how the news got out. But I remembered what Ms. Taylor said — “I’ve already filed a report.”

When Mom saw the crowd, her face went dark.

She pulled Dad into an empty room and closed the door.

I passed through the door and floated near the ceiling light.

“Ryan. You need to stick to the story.” Mom’s voice was low, tight.

“Say it was an accident. Nora wanted to walk. We said yes. Who knew what would happen?”

Dad sat on the bed, hands on his knees.

“Susan. There’s video. You hit her. You yelled at her. You pushed her out.”

“The video only shows after she got out. It doesn’t show what happened inside the car.”

Mom spoke fast.

“If we say she wanted to do it, then she wanted to do it.”

Dad looked up at her.

“The police already saw the footage.”

“So what? You can’t see our faces. You can’t hear what we said in the car.”

Mom walked to the window with her back to him.

“Ryan, think. If this blows up, do you keep your job? Do I keep my partnership at the firm?”

“What about Connor? He’s applying to middle school next year. With parents like us, how does he get in?”

She turned and looked him in the eye.

“It was an accident. Nora just wandered off the path. Happens on the highway all the time.”

Dad sat there for a long time.

Finally, he pushed up his glasses — the ones with the cracked lens.

“Okay.”

One word.

I floated near the light, and when I heard that word, I felt myself get a little lighter.

Like something inside me was snapping, one by one.

What they didn’t know was that Grandpa had been standing outside the door the whole time.

It wasn’t shut all the way.

He heard everything.

Grandpa stood there for a moment. Then he turned and walked slowly to the nurses’ station.

He picked up the phone and dialed.

“Is this the police? I want to report a case of child abuse.”

“The abuser is the child’s biological mother, Susan Miller.”

“The father, Ryan Miller, knew and did nothing. He let it happen.”

His voice was steady, like a man half his age.

“My name is George Miller. I’m the child’s grandfather.”

“I have evidence. Photos, records, from the child’s teacher.”

“I will testify.”