Chapter 4

By the time we reached the hospital, I could no longer feel my arms.

Ellie was taken from me at the emergency entrance.

The doors slammed shut.

For the next forty-three minutes, I stood in the hallway soaked from head to toe, staring at the red emergency light above the door.

No one called me Mom.

No one told me she would be okay.

And Joe still hadn’t called back.

By dawn, he finally appeared.

His hair was a chaotic mess.

His shirt collar was crooked.

And there was a faint red smear near his neck.

Not blood.

Lipstick.

The…