Chapter 3
He dropped to his knees beside the blankets.
He threw them back.
A little girl with matted blonde hair lay curled into a ball.
Her face was flushed.
Her breathing was shallow and fast.
Daniel touched her forehead.
His hand jerked back like he’d been burned.
“She’s burning up,” he said. His voice broke. “Emily—please—”
I was already beside him.
I pressed my wrist to her neck.
Her pulse was thready, too fast.
“Lila?” I said softly. “Can you hear me, sweetie?”
Her eyelids fluttered but didn’t open.
She made a small, whimpering sound in her throat.
“How long has she been like this?” I asked Jake.
“Since yesterday morning,” he said, twisting his hands together. “She woke up hot and she wouldn’t drink anything. I tried to give her water but she threw it up. I didn’t know what to do.”
“You did good, Jake,” I said. “You did everything right.”
I looked at Daniel.
“We need to get her to a hospital right now. This fever is too high. She could seize.”
Daniel didn’t waste a second.
He lifted Lila gently, wrapping the blankets around her.
She was so small in his arms.
So still.
“Come on, baby,” he whispered against her hair. “Come on, Lila. Open your eyes for Daddy. Please.”
She didn’t respond.
We hurried out of the warehouse.
I called 911 as we walked.
“Fourth and Maple. The old brick warehouse. Five-year-old female, high fever, altered mental status. Suspected dehydration and infection.”
Daniel had his car parked two blocks over—a black SUV, clean and expensive.
He laid Lila across the backseat, her head in my lap.
Jake climbed in beside us, holding his sister’s hand.
Daniel peeled out, sirens already wailing in the distance.
We met the ambulance three blocks away.
Paramedics swarmed the car.
They put an oxygen mask on Lila.
They started an IV.
They took her temperature.
“One hundred and four point seven,” one of them said.
Daniel leaned against the side of the ambulance, his face ashen.
I stood beside him.
He looked like he might fall over.
“Is she going to be okay?” he asked. His voice was hollow.
“She’s in the right place now,” I said. “The fever is the body fighting something. We’ll know more at the hospital.”
Jake sat on the curb, watching them work on his sister.
I knelt beside him.
“You were so brave, Jake,” I said. “Taking care of her all that time. She’s lucky to have you.”
He looked up at me, tears finally spilling over.
“I thought she was going to die,” he said. “I thought we were both going to die in there and nobody would ever find us.”
I pulled him into a hug.
He clung to me like I was a lifeline.
Daniel got in the ambulance with Lila.
He waved me over.
“Please come,” he said. “I don’t have anyone else right now. And Jake knows you.”
I nodded.
I drove my car behind the ambulance to Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital.
The next four hours were a blur.
Lila was taken straight to the ER.
Daniel paced the waiting room.
Back and forth.
Back and forth.
Jake fell asleep on a chair, his head on my shoulder.
He was exhausted.
Starving.
Dehydrated.
But alive.
A social worker came by.
Then the police.
Daniel told them everything.
About Vanessa.
About the warehouse.
About Sarah leaving.
About three months of hell not knowing where his children were.
The officers took notes.
They told him they’d pick Vanessa up immediately.
“Child abandonment,” one of them said. “Possibly kidnapping, depending on what we find. She had no legal right to keep those children from you.”
Daniel just nodded.
He was running on pure adrenaline.
Finally, a doctor came out.
She scrubbed her face with her hands.
Daniel froze.
“Mr. Carter?”
“Yes.”
“Your daughter has bacterial pneumonia,” the doctor said. “It’s advanced. She’s been sick for at least a week, probably longer. Her left lung is almost completely consolidated.”
Daniel swayed.
I reached out and steadied him.
“Is she—”
“She’s stable for now,” the doctor said quickly. “We’ve started strong antibiotics. We’ve got her on oxygen and fluids. The fever is starting to come down. But she’s not out of the woods yet. We’re moving her to the PICU. We’ll know more in twenty-four hours.”
“Can I see her?”
“One person, for a few minutes. She’s sedated.”
Daniel went.
He was gone ten minutes.
When he came back, his face was streaked with tears.
He sat down heavily in the chair beside me.
Jake stirred, then woke up.
“Daddy? Is Lila okay?”
Daniel pulled his son onto his lap.
He held him so tight I thought Jake might complain.
But the boy just melted into him.
“Lila’s going to be okay,” Daniel said. “The doctors are making her better. She’s sleeping right now. We can see her in the morning.”
Jake nodded, his eyes already closing again.
We sat in silence for a long time.
The waiting room was empty except for us.
The clock on the wall ticked past midnight.
“Emily,” Daniel said finally.
I looked at him.
“I don’t know how to thank you,” he said. “If you hadn’t been there today—if you hadn’t tried to help Jake—who knows how much longer it would have been before I found them. Lila might not have—”
His voice broke.
“I’m just glad I was there,” I said.
“Can I ask you something?” he said.
“Of course.”
“Would you stay?” he said. “Just for tonight. I don’t—I don’t think I can do this alone. Jake knows you. He trusts you. And I—” He stopped, took a breath. “I don’t have anyone else. My parents are gone. Sarah’s family won’t talk to me. And Vanessa—” He laughed bitterly. “Well, you saw Vanessa.”
I looked at Jake, sleeping peacefully in his father’s arms.
I looked at Daniel—handsome, broken, desperate.
I thought about my empty apartment.
My quiet life.
How nothing exciting had happened to me in years.
“Of course I’ll stay,” I said.
Daniel closed his eyes.
Some of the tension left his shoulders.
“Thank you,” he whispered.
The police came back an hour later.
They had news.
“We picked up Vanessa at her apartment,” the lead officer said. “She didn’t fight. She’s already talking.”
“What did she say?” Daniel said.
The officer looked uncomfortable.
“She’s saying Sarah didn’t just leave,” he said. “She’s saying Sarah paid her. Five thousand dollars. To take the kids, hide them, and tell you they were gone. She says Sarah was planning to come back for them once you’d given up looking and moved away.”
Daniel’s face hardened.
“Where is Sarah now?”
“That’s the thing,” the officer said. “Vanessa doesn’t know. Sarah cut off all contact three months ago. She changed her number. Vanished. Nobody’s heard from her since.”
Daniel stood slowly, careful not to wake Jake.
He walked to the window.
He stared out at the Nashville skyline.
“So she’s out there somewhere,” he said. “Knowing her children were alone in a warehouse. Knowing they were starving. And she didn’t come back.”
“Mr. Carter,” the officer said gently. “If what Vanessa says is true—this is a lot bigger than child abandonment. This is custodial interference. Conspiracy. Possibly kidnapping for ransom, depending on what Sarah’s real plan was.”
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Daniel didn’t turn around.
“Find her,” he said. His voice was ice. “Find my wife. And when you do—tell her I’m waiting.”
