Nathan stood.
“I’ll go check the hallway.”
He returned twenty minutes later.
“She’s gone.”
I exhaled.
That should have comforted me.
It did not.
My mother had never been good at leaving when she was told to leave.
PART 9
The night dragged on.
Mia fell asleep on the small couch.
Nathan dozed in the chair.
I stayed beside Sophie.
Around one-thirty, Denise checked again.
Everything looked stable.
She encouraged me to sleep.
“I’ll wake you if anything changes.”
I resisted.
Then my body made the decision for me.
Sometime after two, exhaustion pulled me under.
PART 10
When I woke, pale morning light was beginning to show through the window.
My first instinct was Sophie.
Monitor.
Stable.
Ventilator.
Still running.
Numbers.
Normal.
Relief rushed through me.
Then I heard Mia.
“Mom.”
Her voice sounded wrong.
Small.
Thin.
I turned.
She was sitting upright.
Her blanket clutched against her chest.
Her face was pale.
“What is it, sweetheart?”
She looked toward the door.
Then at Sophie.
Then back at me.
“Grandma came here last night.”
My stomach dropped.
PART 11
I sat up too quickly.
Pain shot through my incision.
I ignored it.
“What do you mean?”
Mia swallowed.
“The door made a little sound.”
“I woke up.”
“I pretended I was asleep.”
“Why?”
“Because I didn’t want her to make me leave.”
My heart started pounding.
I forced my voice calm.
“What did Grandma do?”
Mia looked toward Sophie’s incubator.
“She looked at you first.”
“Then Dad.”
“He was sleeping.”
“Then she went to Sophie.”
My mouth went dry.
“What did she do?”
Mia’s fingers tightened around the blanket.
“She looked at the machine.”
Then she stopped.
PART 12
I moved closer.
“Mia.”
She started crying.
That scared me more than the silence.
I took her hands.
“You’re not in trouble.”
“I need you to tell me.”
She whispered.
“Grandma touched the tubes.”
Everything inside me went cold.
“What tubes?”
“The ones by Sophie’s face.”
My heart stopped.
“Did she pull them?”
Mia shook her head quickly.
“I don’t know.”
“She was touching them.”
“Then she said something.”
“What?”
Mia looked at me.
Her eyes were huge.
“She said.”
“Maybe if the machines stopped, everyone could finally focus on Vanessa.”
I could not breathe.
PART 13
For one second, my brain refused to understand the sentence.
Maybe Mia had misunderstood.
Maybe she heard something else.
Maybe my mother was checking the tubing.
Maybe.
Maybe.
Maybe.
Then I looked at my six-year-old daughter.
Children can misunderstand words.
They do not usually invent terror like that.
I pressed the call button.
Hard.
Denise entered less than thirty seconds later.
“What happened?”
I pointed toward the door.
“My mother got in here last night.”
