4

The nurse had let Mom in to give my medication history. The moment she reached the bed, she gripped the rail. "Wait. Why are you intubating her?"

The doctor didn't stop working. "Her breathing muscles are giving out, and her oxygen level is still dropping. We have to make sure she can breathe first."

"Intubation is way too extreme."

Mom reached for my mask. A nurse immediately blocked her, while another hit the call button on the wall. Oliver followed them in and grabbed her wrist. "Mom, stop touching her!"

Mom yanked free. "I only put a little something to make her throw up and a tiny bit of muscle relaxant powder in her capsules. How could it be this bad?"

The doctor looked up. "Which muscle relaxant? What strength? What did you give her to make her vomit? And what's the name of the cold medicine she took this morning?"

Mom opened her mouth, but after a long pause, all she said was, "One bottle was white. The other had a blue label, I think."

"And the names?"

She shook her head.

The doctor frowned. "Bring the bottles back exactly as they are. Hurry."

But Mom turned to my brother. "Did you hear that? Now they have to figure out exactly what she took."

Oliver slammed his palm on the bed rail, and the metal rang with a dull clang. "I heard you! Can you just let the doctors save her?"

Dad finally arrived after the officers finished testing him at the scene and another patrol car drove him to the hospital. As soon as he stepped inside, he heard the doctor asking for the pill bottles.

"Where are the pills?"

"In the old medicine cabinet at home."

"Have Matthew get them."

"He doesn't know where they are."

"Give him the key and tell him where to look!"

Without thinking, Mom slid her bag behind her. "Those bottles all look alike. What if he brings the wrong ones? I'll go myself."

Dad stared at her for two seconds, then said slowly and clearly, "If you ever use Emily to teach someone a lesson again, we're getting a divorce."

Mom froze, one hand on the strap of her bag. A few seconds later, she pulled out her phone and called a ride. "Fine. I get it."

The doctor continued preparing to intubate me. "We won't stop working on her. Bring back every medication involved exactly as it is. When you get home, take clear photos of the labels and send them first. Don't do anything else."

Matthew followed her to the door. "Let me drive you. It'll be faster than waiting for a car."

Mom acted as if she hadn't heard him and headed straight for the elevator.

Before the elevator doors closed, she looked back at my brother. "Listen carefully to everything the doctor asks."

Soon, the only sound in the trauma bay was the steady beeping of machines. A nurse secured the breathing tube, and the doctor started an IV. Poison Control stayed on speakerphone as staff called out blood pressure readings and adjusted medication doses. The clock on the wall moved from 11:42 to 12:19. A full 37 minutes passed before the click of high heels echoed from the far end of the hallway.

Mom hurried back with several old pill bottles and a stack of freshly printed pages tucked under her arm. Several warnings on the top page were printed in bold. The moment Dad saw them, he slammed his palm against the wall. "You were gone 37 minutes! Matthew could've driven home and back faster than that. Where did you go?"

"To get the pills." Mom shoved the stack of pages into Oliver's arms. "I stopped at the 24-hour pharmacy on the way, and the pharmacist printed out the risks of mixing them with cold medicine. He can read it himself. Maybe seeing it in black and white will get through to him better than me saying it a hundred times."

My brother stared at the bold warnings, his grip tightening until the pages crackled.

Dad stared at the pages, his voice shaking. "The doctor sent you to save Emily, and you took a detour to get Oliver some reading material?"

Mom frowned. "I brought the pills back, didn't I? After everything that happened tonight, he needs to learn something from this."

The moment she finished speaking, a shrill, steady alarm sounded inside the trauma bay.

In the next instant, footsteps pounded frantically inside.

"Heart rate's dropping!"

"Get ready to defibrillate!"

"Push another dose!"

Mom stood outside the door with the pill bottles. She hesitated for a moment, then quickly tucked the stack of risk warnings back into Oliver's arms.

"Hold on to these."

She even patted the back of his hand.

"You'd better never forget tonight's lesson for as long as you live."

Then the piercing alarm behind the door stopped without warning.

The hallway went dead silent.

A nurse cracked the door open from inside.

She reached out for the pill bottles.

But Mom, as if she'd finally gotten the result she'd been waiting for, pushed her way inside, still clutching everything in her arms.

She was still talking when she shoved the door open. "Emily, I brought the pills back..."