Chapter 12

Callie's POV

"She is stable."

Michael said it the moment the monitor beside Lily's bed settled into a steady rhythm. He said it quietly and professionally and without any drama but I felt my knees go soft anyway and grabbed the bed rail with both hands.

"What happened to her," I said.

"A treatment related complication." He was still looking at her chart. "A specific inflammatory response that Dr. Anderson's protocol does not screen for because it is rare. Rare enough that most standard programs miss it completely." He set the chart down. "If she had gone to the general ER tonight they would have treated the fever. They would not have found what was underneath it."

I looked at Lily.

She was asleep already. The fever had dropped in under an hour. Her face was smooth and her breathing was even and Mr. Rabbit was tucked under her arm exactly where he always was.

"She could have had a cardiac event," Michael said. Simply. Not for impact. Just because I needed to know. "Within a few hours. The inflammation was moving toward her heart."

The room was very quiet.

"Thank you," I said.

It was not enough. It was the only word I had.

He nodded and turned back to her chart and I stood beside her bed and watched her breathe and thought about twelve missed calls and a text that said come now and what would have happened if I had gone to the other ER instead.

I did not let myself finish that thought.

---

Derek arrived at half past two.

I heard him before I saw him. His voice in the corridor asking a nurse which room. That particular tone he used in professional spaces. Authoritative. Expecting to be answered immediately.

He pushed the door open and stopped.

Michael was still holding Lily's chart. I was standing beside him. We were both looking at the monitor when Derek walked in and I watched his face move through three different things in the space of two seconds.

Relief that Lily was breathing.

Recognition of Michael.

And then something that closed over both of those things completely and left only one expression behind.

"Get out," he said.

Michael looked up.

"I am reviewing her chart," he said. Calm and even.

"I did not ask what you were doing." Derek stepped into the room fully. "I told you to get out. You are not authorized to be anywhere near my daughter's case."

A nurse appeared in the doorway behind him. Young. She looked between the two men carefully.

"Mr. Ashford," she said. "Dr. Reyes identified a serious complication tonight that our standard intake process would not have caught. His intervention most likely prevented a cardiac—"

"I did not ask for a briefing." Derek did not look at her. He was still looking at Michael. "He is not authorized. That is the only relevant fact."

The nurse looked at me.

I looked at Michael.

He set the chart down on the end of Lily's bed. Unhurried. He looked at Derek once with an expression that gave nothing away and then he walked out without another word.

Derek watched him go.

Then he looked at me.

Then at Lily.

Something crossed his face when he looked at her. Something that almost resembled the man I had believed he was once a long time ago.

It lasted about four seconds.

Then he straightened and walked back out into the corridor.

I waited thirty seconds.

Then I followed.

---

He was standing near the end of the corridor with his back to me and his phone pressed to his ear. His voice was low but the corridor was empty and quiet and every word reached me clearly.

"I don't care about the timeline. I want it filed by Friday." A pause. "All of it. Full custody. I want her removed from any decision making capacity regarding Lily entirely." His voice dropped lower but not low enough. "Whatever it costs. File it Friday."

I stood in that corridor and did not move.

He had not called his lawyer about Michael.

He had not called about the restraining order.

He was filing for full custody.

Of a child who had just spent the night fighting off a cardiac event. A child who was asleep right now in a hospital room with her rabbit under her arm because a doctor Derek had tried to destroy had answered his phone at midnight and said come now.

Derek turned around.

He saw me standing there.

He looked at me for a long moment with the phone still in his hand.

And he said nothing.

Because there was nothing to say.

He had already said it all to someone else.

Friday.