Chapter 6 - Emergency Room and Exhalation
The waiting room of Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital smelled faintly of antiseptic and lemon cleaner. It was 6:30 PM by the time Dr. Henderson walked out into the cubicle area where Amy and I were sitting.
Frederick was resting peacefully in Amy’s arms, his fever finally breaking thanks to a dose of intravenous antibiotics and fever reducers administered by the pediatric nursing staff. The red flush on his cheeks had faded to a healthy pink, and his breathing was slow and regular.
"He's going to be just fine," Dr. Henderson said with a reassuring smile, pulling off his latex gloves. "He had a severe ear infection that had gone untreated for a few days, which triggered the high fever and respiratory distress. If you’d waited even another twelve hours, it could have turned into something much worse. You did the right thing getting him here immediately, Mr. Bradley."
Amy let out a ragged, shuddering breath, burying her face in Frederick’s soft curls. "Thank God," she whispered. "Thank God you came home early, Connor."
I wrapped my arm around her shoulders, pulling her close against my side. The scent of baby shampoo and lavender mixed with the stark reality of what we had just survived.
"I'm sorry, Amy," I murmured into her hair, my voice cracking. "I was so blind. I trusted her because she was my mother. I thought she was helping us build a life, while she was actually tearing ours apart from the inside out."
Amy turned her face toward mine, her eyes shining with unshed tears. She reached out and touched my cheek with a gentle, calloused hand—a hand that had spent too many hours scrubbing dishes while she should have been resting.
"You didn't know, Connor," she said softly. "Teresa... she’s a master at making people feel small. She isolated me. She told me if I complained to you, you’d leave us because you were working so hard. I was so scared."
"You never have to be scared in our home again," I vowed, kissing her forehead. "Never."
My phone buzzed in my pocket. It was a text message from Officer Miller, letting me know that Teresa and Mason were being booked down at the downtown precinct, and that detectives from the financial crimes division would be calling me in the morning to go over the bank records and forged deeds.
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"Let's go home, Amy," I said softly.
"Home," she repeated, tasting the word like it was something entirely new. "Yes. Let's go home."
