The director of security stood in front of the screen as if to remind us of what we had just seen. “Ever see that truck before?” he said. “Any idea who the driver was? Any boyfriends or brothers, anything like that you’re aware of?”

“No idea,” I said, looking at Hal.

“I don’t know, either,” said Hal. “But what about the license plate?”

“We are reviewing other angles of the parking lot. We may be able to enlarge the image, possibly see the plates, but no guarantees on that.”

This was sickening.

“The good news is that it appears the two people in the video are alive and well enough to walk and get into the vehicle.”

“And the baby?” I said.

“We believe the baby might have been . . . in the bag that was dropped,” said the director of security.

“And we surmise the child most likely survived the drop. Unharmed,” said the legal representative.

“Because the distance of the drop was only about two feet,” said the facilities manager.

“Are you serious?” I couldn’t believe these people were saying these words.

“Oh, yes. In fact, we’ve been made aware of cases where very young children survived falls from even higher distances,” said the legal representative. “Such as in houses that are on fire.”

“Yes, they are very resilient,” said Ms. Whittier.

“Are you kidding me?” I stood up. “Did I really just hear you say that?”

“Ruth,” said Hal, pushing out his chair and standing up.

“None of you are concerned?”

“Of course we’re concerned.”

“It doesn’t sound like it to me.”

“Mrs. Olson,” said the director of patient relations, looking around the room as if hoping someone else would speak. “It might be of some comfort to know that this dilemma with birth mothers—”

“Dilemma? What dilemma?” I said.

“With birth mothers, I’m only saying that it’s not uncommon, in these types of situations, to have second thoughts, for example, in teen pregnancy and . . . surrogacy . . . situations.”

“Teen pregnancy? This isn’t anything like teen pregnancy.”

“I didn’t say that.”

“Yes, you did. You said it before, and you just said it again.” I felt the heat in my face. “I know you don’t approve of us. For some reason, you have a problem with using a surrogate, Ms. Whittier—”

“I have never said anything one way or the other about surrogacy,” said Ms. Whittier. “That would not be appropriate. That is not my place.”

“You don’t have to say it. I can feel it.” I pointed to my chest so hard I might have drawn blood with my own fingernail. “And if anything, anything at all, happens to our child, if she’s harmed in any way,” I said, pivoting and pointing at the legal representative, “if she is hurt at ALL, you can expect a lawsuit from us.”

“Ruth.”

“Don’t you dare shush me, Hal.”