My wife’s question at the ambulance.
You really think they’re going to let you keep him?
The next morning, a family-services investigator met with me.
She asked me to explain what happened from the beginning.
I told her everything I remembered.
Where I had been standing.
What I saw.
What my mother-in-law did.
What my wife said.
What the police had witnessed.
Then the investigator asked me something I wasn’t prepared for.
“Has your wife ever told you that you were an unsafe parent?”
I hesitated.
“Yes.”
“How often?”
“Whenever we fought.”
She wrote something down.
“Did she ever threaten to report you?”
“Yes.”
“What would she report?”
I swallowed.
“Usually that I was controlling. Sometimes that I didn’t help enough. Once she said she’d tell people I was emotionally abusive.”
The investigator looked up.
“Were those accusations ever investigated?”
“No.”
“Any police reports?”
“Not that I know of.”
