Handle With Care

Piper recalls meeting Charlotte at the skating rink eight years earlier. The two women bonded over their daughters, and Piper was impressed by Charlotte’s pastry career. They quickly became best friends.

Once a month, Charlotte and Piper go to a movie and then to a dive bar called Maxie’s Pad. On this month’s trip, Piper can tell something is wrong with Charlotte. Charlotte brings up an article she read about a family suing the hospital after their son was born with cystic fibrosis. Piper describes the lawsuit as frivolous and says that an obstetrician-gynecologist (OBGYN) would tell the couple, “They got a bad baby.’ It’s not a judgment call, it’s just a statement of fact” (84). Charlotte gets upset and asks if that’s how Piper feels about Willow. While Piper apologizes and tries to de-escalate the conversation, Charlotte leaves their date early.

While in her school library with Emma, Amelia finds a magazine cover that features a woman with OI who went on to marry and have a child. The cover makes Amelia think about everything Willow will miss out on while Amelia continues to grow up. Emma encourages Amelia to steal the magazine to show Willow, and she does. However, instead of taking the magazine home to show Willow, Amelia tears it up and flushes it down the toilet. She wants to protect her sister from the “freak show” she sees in the photo.

Marin meets with Charlotte to discuss the lawsuit. When she asks if Sean will be joining them, Charlotte says he won’t. Marin emphasizes that Sean will need to join the lawsuit because any defendant would insist that a settlement include both parents (so that whichever parent doesn’t sue cannot come after the defendant a second time).

Marin tells Charlotte that she will face public scrutiny. Charlotte acknowledges that people will think she’s in the lawsuit for the money, but she’s just filing the lawsuit to protect Willow. Marin asks her how Willow will react to Charlotte saying in court that Willow should not have been born. Charlotte says she knows that Willow will not believe it.

While working a Saturday night patrol, Sean arrests Father Grady, his Catholic priest, for a charge of driving under the influence (DUI). Father Grady had just returned from a funeral for a 26-year-old man.

Sean insists the family go to church in the morning, primarily to see how Father Grady addresses the incident. They typically avoid going to church because people look at Willow with pity. The family goes to church but must leave early after Amelia and Sean play a game of hangman that spells out “        Satan” and Willow loudly guesses, embarrassing Charlotte. Outside the church, Charlotte confesses to Sean that she went back to see the lawyer. Sean is furious, and Charlotte reminds him that settlement money could help them provide for Willow in a way that Sean’s salary currently doesn’t let them. She additionally tells him that as a mother—and the person with Willow the most often—she feels Willow’s pains and challenges more than him.

Later that night, Charlotte catches a stomach bug, leaving Sean to take care of the girls himself, something with which he struggles. Both girls compare his parenting attempts negatively to their mother’s. When Sean climbs into bed with Charlotte, he assures her that she won’t lose everything in the lawsuit, ultimately deciding to join it with her.

After four months, Willow’s spica cast is cut in half, and she can return to preschool. While Willow is much more advanced than her peers, the socialization is good for her. However, when Willow arrives at her preschool, the teacher pulls Charlotte aside to tell her the staff does not feel safe being responsible for Willow in her current condition. They are concerned about liability if Willow gets injured on the premises. Charlotte is furious at the teacher, but Willow lies and tells her it’s okay. When Charlotte takes her to the car, Willow drops a bag of rice her teacher gave her, breaking her shoulder.

While at the hospital for Willow’s shoulder injury, Charlotte learns that Willow has a previous fracture that is healing. Charlotte feels guilty that she didn’t notice her daughter’s previous injury.

Sean chases a kid spray-painting a dugout. He overreacts, almost choking the kid before letting him go. Amelia calls him, telling him that Charlotte never picked her up. He goes to get Amelia.

Charlotte soon arrives home from the hospital with Willow. Sean is upset that she did not call him to let him know that Willow was injured, but she says her phone died. The two begin to fight about the lawsuit. Charlotte argues that Sean couldn’t have left work to be with Willow because he would’ve lost out on pay. Sean takes her comment to mean that the lawsuit is primarily because he cannot pay for everything Willow needs. He angrily leaves the house.

Following Sean and Charlotte’s fight, the family has a tense dinner together. Later, Willow asks Charlotte and Amelia why Charlotte and Sean are fighting so much. Amelia asks Charlotte when she is going to tell Willow about the lawsuit, which Charlotte resists doing. Amelia goes to the bathroom and throws up.

A recipe for Sweet Pastry Dough and Apricot Tart precedes this chapter.

While on Facebook, Marin realizes her boyfriend has dumped her. She goes to confront him at his office, and he tells her that she doesn’t want to be in a relationship with him; she wants to be in a relationship with her biological mother.

Later that night, Marin calls her mother to talk. Marin asks if her mother would want Marin to find her biological parents and tells her mother she’s worried about hurting her feelings. Marin worries that her biological mother might not want to meet her, to which her mother says, “Who wouldn’t want you?” (130).

After joining several online support groups for people searching for their biological parents, Marin reaches out to a psychic. She meets with her the next day. The psychic gives her the name of a law firm that most likely handled her adoption and tells her a woman named Maisie has information. The psychic also says Marin’s father has something to do with the law.

Marin leaves and calls the law firm, but they hang up when she asks too many questions about her closed adoption. She then calls the Hillsborough Court House to speak to Maisie. Maisie offers to send Marin her adoption decree. As Maisie agrees, Marin thinks about what acts make someone a mother, and she thinks of Charlotte.

Piper reminisces about when she started seeing Charlotte as a patient. She typically doesn’t see patients she knows personally because she knows she cannot be objective when it came to their health. However, Charlotte argued that their close friendship would make Piper the perfect doctor for her: Piper wanted Charlotte to get pregnant just as badly as she and Sean wanted to. Piper agreed to be her doctor, primarily because she could not bring herself to deny Charlotte.

Piper found no medical reason for Charlotte’s infertility, and the two discussed fertility drugs before Charlotte got pregnant with Willow. During the 15th week of Charlotte’s pregnancy, Piper ran a blood test to see what Charlotte’s baby’s risks for Down syndrome and neural anomalies were. The results indicated that Charlotte had a higher than usual risk of having a baby with Down syndrome. Piper outlined Charlotte’s options: She could undergo an amniocentesis test to get further information, and she could terminate the pregnancy if the baby is diagnosed with Down syndrome. Charlotte, a devout Catholic, said she’d worked too hard for this baby and wouldn’t terminate the pregnancy.

The women agreed to wait for Charlotte’s upcoming ultrasound for more information. During that ultrasound, Janine, the ultrasound technician, didn’t see any indicators for Down syndrome outside of smaller-than-usual femurs. Janine mentioned that the image of the brain was extremely clear, which Piper chalked up to the machine being new. Piper told Charlotte the good news.

When Charlotte was 27 weeks pregnant, she came to pick Piper up to see a movie, but Piper was delayed by work. Charlotte hung out in Piper’s office until Piper finished delivering the baby. Piper suggested doing an ultrasound to find out the baby’s sex. Charlotte happily agreed. When Piper did the ultrasound, she saw multiple fractures and realized the baby had OI. Charlotte realized something was wrong and asked Piper what was the matter. Piper told her that her daughter was not okay.

Following the ultrasound where Piper discovered Willow’s OI, Sean searched OI on the internet, and he made sure to clear his search history so that Charlotte wouldn’t see any of the images he saw.

The next day, Charlotte and Sean went to meet with Dr. Del Sol. She explained the difference between Type III OI (causing serious disabilities) and Type II OI (almost always fatal at birth). She told them that there were still places where they could terminate the pregnancy, but Sean said they were not interested.

In the present, Charlotte asks Sean why he hasn’t signed on to the lawsuit yet, and he says he has a bad feeling about it. He worries that Willow will think they didn’t want her, but Charlotte argues that she’s so smart that she’ll know that they are only saying they didn’t want her to provide for her. Sean wants to make Charlotte understand the “sick knot” he feels and to punish her, so he rapes her. He gets out of bed, feeling guilty. He signs the papers, leaving a note apologizing for his actions next to it.

Amelia, Emma, Piper, Charlotte, and Willow go to Target for back-to-school shopping. Charlotte tried to get out of it but finally agreed to go, saying, “Last time,” implying that this would be the last time before she filed the lawsuit. Amelia is excited because Piper often buys her things that her mother cannot.

While Amelia and Emma shop, Piper and Charlotte talk, but Charlotte’s mind is elsewhere and she is not fully present for the conversation. Piper sees the clothes that Emma has picked out and remarks that some of the clothes look like they could be illegal. Amelia quickly says that Emma could hire a lawyer and that they know a good one. Charlotte is shocked and yells at her daughter. Her mother’s reaction makes Amelia realize that Piper doesn’t know about the lawsuit, and Amelia figures out that the doctor her parents are suing is Piper. This makes her feel sick, and she wanders through the store. Instead of throwing up, she steals a bra.

After delivering a baby, Piper is served with the lawsuit. It is her first time being sued, and she is shocked when she realizes Sean and Charlotte are suing her. She was especially confused since she and Charlotte had just gone shopping the week before and Charlotte hadn’t said anything. She calls Charlotte for more information, but Charlotte says the lawsuit is about everything Piper “didn’t do” before hanging up. Piper picks up Charlotte’s medical file at her office before driving to Rob’s office.

After being comforted and encouraged by Rob, she opens Charlotte’s file to review it. She notes the first ultrasound scan that details Willow’s skull and realizes that the machine was not just new and that an abnormality was on the screen. She calls her medical malpractice lawyer, Guy Booker.

Piper cannot sleep that night, so she begins stripping the wallpaper in the bathroom. She decides to redo the bathroom after meeting with Guy the next day.

During her initial meeting with Guy, Piper admits that she thinks she missed something, based on the first ultrasound scan. Guy argues that the scan was taken too early to be a definitive marker for OI. He reminds her of Charlotte’s response to taking the amniocentesis test: She was going to have Willow regardless of the test’s results. Guy says that doesn’t sound like a wrongful birth suit.

Willow’s kindergarten teacher calls Charlotte and requests a meeting, saying there has been an incident and that Willow is upset. While playing pretend with two of her classmates, Willow became upset because they wanted her to be the baby, while they played the mom and dad. To get revenge, Willow tripped one of the girls.

When Charlotte chastises Willow in the car, Willow asks her not to get rid of her. Charlotte is shocked by what her daughter said. She pulls over the car and explains that the lawsuit is simply to get justice for Willow. Charlotte tells her that she is going to have to say things that might be hurtful but that Willow needs to know that she’s simply playing pretend and that she loves her.

Marin prepares for the trial, taking depositions and reading over the witnesses’ interrogatories, which are questionnaires that allow lawyers to see a case’s strengths and weaknesses. During this period, Marin receives a letter from Maisie regarding her adoption. She doesn’t learn much information from the letter. She continues to wonder about her biological parents.

While reading Piper’s interrogatory, Marin is surprised to learn that Charlotte and Piper are best friends. She calls Charlotte to inquire about this, and Charlotte says she didn’t think the information was important. She’s also upset that Amelia could be called as a witness. Marin tells Charlotte that the fact she’s suing her best friend could look coldhearted to the jury. She reminds Charlotte that she will lose a lot in this lawsuit and makes Charlotte promise not to keep any more secrets.

Sean soon has to come in for his deposition. He is not happy to be there, and Marin tries to prepare him for the deposition, telling him to stay on guard while Guy questions him. As they walk into the room, Piper confronts Charlotte and Sean, asking how they could do this to her. Marin and Guy separate their respective clients and begin the deposition.

During the deposition, it comes out that Sean had previously sued Ford in 2003 for an issue with his cruiser’s seat. This is news to Marin, which frustrates her. Guy riles Sean up by implying that he didn’t ever want Willow to be born. Sean angrily walks out of the deposition, telling Charlotte he can’t be a part of the lawsuit. Charlotte and Marin follow him out. As she’s leaving, Marin receives a phone call from Maisie telling Marin that she has her biological mother’s address.

Because of the lawsuit, Amelia and Emma are no longer friends. Additionally, Amelia realizes that all of her friends have been Emma’s friends all along, so she has no one to hang out with at school.

Eventually, the rest of the school learns about the lawsuit, and most take Emma’s side. After Emma and Amelia get into a fight over the lawsuit in math class, Amelia is sent to the principal’s office. She doesn’t go to the office and instead goes to CVS, where she steals a candy bar and a package of hair dye. She laments being seen as invisible and feeling unwanted by her parents.

Charlotte and Sean fight over the lawsuit. Charlotte says that if Sean really would do anything for Willow, he would join the lawsuit. He tells her that he loves Willow so much that he cannot join it. The two are surprised to see that Amelia has dyed her hair bright blue.

Charlotte reflects on her pregnancy, especially after she found out about Willow’s OI diagnosis. Struggling with her feelings, she remembered that one of her neighbors had terminated a pregnancy after her child was diagnosed with a severe birth defect. Charlotte went to visit the woman, telling her that something was wrong with her baby. The woman told her she wasn’t sure she did the right thing in terminating her pregnancy, and she wished that no one had given her a choice in the matter.

Amelia lets Willow play with her newly dyed hair before tucking her into bed. Willow tells Amelia that she realizes that her future is limited because of her OI diagnosis and worries that her parents’ fighting is because of her. Willow laments that she can never compete in a beauty pageant because of her condition.

Amelia, upset, goes downstairs to get food from the kitchen. She hears her father moan on the couch and sees him sleeping there instead of in his bedroom upstairs. Amelia gets more upset and takes a carving knife and goes to her bathroom. She cuts herself on her arm for the first time and feels relief and pride.