Chapter 3 - Stay in Sight
Dana worked fast.
She listened to Lily’s lungs.
Checked oxygen.
Asked about allergies, medications, exposure, timing.
Anna answered while staring at Marcus.
“Her inhaler is usually in the kitchen drawer,” she said.
Dana’s head turned.
“Usually?”
Anna looked toward the kitchen.
“I keep it there. Backup in her backpack.”
Dana called to Ryan, “Find the inhaler?”
Ryan did not move away from Marcus.
“Not leaving them.”
Dana’s eyes sharpened.
She understood enough.
Anna stood abruptly and ran to the kitchen drawer.
Empty.
Not messy.
Not searched.
Empty.
Her stomach turned.
She opened the cabinet where she kept the backup spacer.
Gone.
She ran back.
“It’s not there.”
Marcus said nothing.
Dana looked at him.
“Where is the child’s inhaler?”
Marcus’s expression tightened.
“I don’t keep track of that.”
Anna stared.
“You moved it.”
He looked at her.
“She uses it as a crutch.”
Dana’s face went hard.
Ryan’s thumb pressed the radio button.
“Unit 12 requesting law enforcement response to scene for suspected child endangerment and possible suspect identification issue.”
Marcus snapped, “Turn that off.”
Ryan did not.
Dana lifted Lily carefully and checked her airway again.
“Lily, stay with me. Good girl. Breathe through the mask.”
Lily whimpered.
Anna knelt beside her.
“I’m here. Mommy’s here. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”
Lily’s fingers reached for her.
Anna held on.
Marcus backed toward the hallway.
Ryan moved with him.
Not touching.
Blocking.
“Stay in sight,” Ryan said.
Marcus laughed once.
It sounded wrong.
“You think you know me?”
Ryan’s face paled further.
“I know enough.”
“What did he do?” Anna demanded.
Ryan glanced at Lily.
Then at Anna’s red cheek.
Then back at Marcus.
“This is not the first child he watched struggle for air.”
Anna felt the room tilt.
Dana said, “Ryan.”
“I’m not saying more yet.”
Marcus’s voice dropped.
“You don’t know what happened.”
Ryan’s jaw clenched.
“I was there.”
For the first time, Marcus looked truly terrified.
Not angry.
Not inconvenienced.
Terrified.
Anna looked at her husband and realized the man in her living room had a past that had just entered through the front door wearing a paramedic uniform.
Lily’s oxygen began to rise.
Not enough.
But enough for Dana to move from pure crisis to controlled urgency.
“We need transport.”
Anna nodded.
“I’m coming.”
Marcus said sharply, “She’s not leaving with them.”
Every adult in the room turned toward him.
Dana looked at Anna.
“Are you the mother?”
“Yes.”
“Then she comes with you.”
Marcus pointed at Anna’s face.
“She’s hysterical. She attacked me when she came in.”
Ryan’s eyes flicked to Anna’s cheek.
Dana’s expression hardened.
“She has a fresh facial injury and you’re the only person in the room who isn’t concerned about the child.”
Marcus took another step back.
The radio crackled.
Law enforcement en route.
Anna barely heard it.
Her mind was running backward through every small wrong thing.
The locked medicine cabinet Marcus said was for safety.
The days Lily seemed scared to ask for her inhaler.
The way she had begun whispering, “I’m not being dramatic,” when coughing.
The way Marcus once said, “If she learns breathing gets attention, she’ll use it forever.”
Anna had argued.
Then let the argument end.
How many endings had she mistaken for peace?
Dana lifted Lily onto the stretcher with practiced care.
Anna stayed close, one hand on Lily’s blanket.
Ryan kept himself between Marcus and the path to the door.
As they moved down the hallway, Marcus called after her.
“Anna. Think carefully. If you leave like this, don’t come back.”
Anna stopped.
For one second, the old fear rose.
The mortgage.
The neighborhood.
The toys scattered in the living room.
The family photographs on the wall.
The life she had tried to make real by pretending the cracks were shadows.
Then Lily wheezed under the oxygen mask.
Anna turned back just enough to look at Marcus.
May you like
“I won’t.”
She walked out with her daughter.
