Chapter Three
The Empty Ultrasound
The ultrasound room had pictures of smiling cartoon animals taped to the ceiling.
Sophie stared at them while the technician moved the probe across her lower abdomen.
I held her hand. Eric stood near the door with his arms crossed. Daniel remained somewhere downstairs, waiting for news from a family that had just treated him like a criminal.
The screen showed shifting fields of gray.
I kept searching for the shape of a baby even though every part of me rejected the possibility.
The technician measured something, erased it, then measured again.
“Do you see anything?” Eric asked.
“I’m not permitted to interpret the images.”
“That means you don’t.”
“It means a radiologist will review them.”
Sophie turned toward me.
“If there’s a baby, will I have to keep it?”
My throat closed.
“We don’t know that there is one.”
“But the test said—”
“The test found a hormone,” I reminded her. “That’s all we know.”
The technician abruptly stopped moving the probe. She saved several images, then left the room without explaining why.
Eric began pacing.
“This is what happens when everyone worries about Daniel’s feelings instead of finding out what happened to Sophie.”
“Your accusation did not create the test result.”
“No, but living with him might have.”
