A local woman missing- Mary Kubica

MEREDITH
11 YEARS BEFORE
April
Shelby Tebow goes into labor two weeks early. The call comes in the
middle of the night. It’s Jason who calls, from Shelby’s phone. Her
contractions are close. I tell him to go to the hospital. I say that I will
meet them there.
I meet Jason for the first time. He’s everything I expected him to
be, except that his voice, now that I hear it, is not the same one I
heard when I was standing outside their home. That was another
man. It calls everything I know about Shelby Tebow into question.
Shelby gets examined first by a triage nurse to see if she’ll be
admitted or sent home. The suggestion of going back home gets
Jason provoked, though it’s standard protocol to be examined before
being admitted. Jason gets angry with the triage nurse.
“You need to simmer down, sir,” she tells him. He stands too close,
breathing down her neck as she examines Shelby. The nurse tells
him to back away and give her room. She examines Shelby, who is
five centimeters dilated. Her contractions are less than four minutes
apart. Shelby gets admitted. She changes into a hospital gown and
takes her place in the bed.
In time, Dr. Feingold comes. I’ve never had the pleasure of
working with Dr. Feingold before. But his reputation precedes him.
He’s overweening and uncompromising. He tries to relegate me to
the corner of the room. I won’t have it. Shelby is my client as much
as she is his.
He wants to check her progress. He jams his fingers inside her
cervix, far less gently than the triage nurse. Shelby recoils on the
hospital bed. She presses her knees together. She tries pulling away
from him.
“You need to hold still,” he says. It’s apathetic.
“You’re hurting me,” she whimpers.