Julian lunged for the phone, but Chloe moved away and held it tightly against her chest with both hands.
I watched his face change from terror to calculation, which frightened me far more than his earlier refusal to take the baby.
He claimed the sender was a disturbed woman from his past who had harassed him for money over many years.
Chloe asked why a stranger would know the exact day and hospital where their daughter had been born.
He answered that someone must have told her, then pointed toward me as though the explanation could somehow begin there.
I reminded him that I had spent the previous sixteen hours giving birth, not sending hospital updates to mysterious strangers.
Chloe's expression hardened when he failed to apologize, and she pressed the number before he could invent another excuse.
A woman answered immediately, speaking in a low voice that sounded exhausted rather than threatening or eager for confrontation.
