Semua Bab When Saving Is Killing: Bab 1 - Bab 10

The heavy click of the deadbolt sliding into place rang louder than the slap Mom delivered to my face.I threw myself against the door, pounding on the wood with both hands. "Mom! The medicine is dangerous! You can’t use it!"No one answered.My little brother’s muffled wails faded from the living room, moving toward the front entry. I could hear Dad shouting frantically, "Where are the car keys? Hurry up!"Mom’s voice was tight, strained as she tried to keep her composure. "Just get him to the hospital first. I’ll deal with her when we get back."The heavy front door slammed shut.Silence rushed in, leaving me entirely alone in the dark closet.This space was supposed to be the small home office Dad was remodeling for my brother. Bundles of hardwood flooring planks were stacked against the drywall.Two heavy plastic construction buckets sat in the corner and a spool of exposed electrical wire lay on the floor.Mom had always warned me that construction materials were

I frantically checked my pockets.Buried in the folds of my dress was a stubby, broken piece of a pencil. I managed to rip a small piece of soft cardboard off the side of the heavy storage box. My fingers were shaking so violently that the graphite tip snapped twice before I could even manage to write.My hand was shaky as I scribbled crooked scrawl.Wrong medicine.Sophia messed up.I knelt down and tried to slide the piece of cardboard through the thin gap beneath the locked door. But the clearance was too low, the cardboard jammed halfway. I used my fingernails, scraping them against the wood to shove it through millimeter by millimeter.Suddenly, Dad's footsteps approached from the outside.His black leather dress shoes stopped right in front of the door frame. The edge of my cardboard note was still sticking out.Dad bent down slightly. "Nova." His voice softened just a fraction when he spoke my name. "Just apologize to your mother. Once Leo is stable and out

Sophia snatched the landline receiver off the cradle. "Hello?"The voice on the other end was severe, clinical. I couldn't make out every syllable through the heavy door but several jagged words pierced the silence.“...Hospital... chemical residue... chlorine-based... the child is stable for now...”Sophia’s voice cracked instantly. "There really was something wrong with the medicine?"I pressed my weak palm against the wood.The person on the phone said something else. Sophia interrupted frantically, "It was Nova who dumped it! “She kept saying it was dangerous, but her mother thought she was just..."She couldn't finish the sentence. Gasping for air, she hung up the landline and immediately dialed Mom's cell phone.When Mom picked up, the background was deafening. The hurried squeaks of nurses' sneakers, Leo’s distant, exhausted wails and Mom’s sharp, erratic breathing filled the line.Sophia was practically sobbing now. "Ma'am! The hospital just called the house

Dad remained on his knees on the bare floorboards. He was staring blankly at my hands.Clutched tightly inside my small, rigid fist was a torn scrap of paper.The instruction pamphlet from the medicine box. The lead paramedic tried to gently pry my fingers open but my hand wouldn't budge. In the end, the maintenance worker had to bring over a pair of long tweezers, carefully slipping the paper out millimeter by millimeter.The scrap was severely wrinkled, soaked through with my sweat and the chemical primer. But near the bottom, a single line of tiny print had been circled over and over with a heavy, desperate pencil mark.WARNING: Do not mix with chlorine-based household cleaners.The moment Mom saw those words, her body violently contorted and she fell to her knees, dry-heaving onto the floor.Dad reached out, his hand trembling so violently that he missed the piece of paper three times before his fingers finally closed around it.By the time the police officers arrived,

“Did you guys hear? Apparently, they locked their daughter in the walk-in closet...”"A room that's just been renovated? Isn't that deadly?""That kid used to press the elevator button for me. She's really considerate."“Didn't her mother always boast about how she never took sides? About how she loved them both equally?”Mom sat motionless on the sofa, clutching my yellow dress tightly against her chest. My actual dress had already been sealed away in a brown paper evidence bag, so she was holding the identical backup copy.She had bought the matching outfits last month for a sibling photoshoot. My brother's tiny version was still hanging out on the back porch line. It was small, crisp and clean.The one in her hands was being crumpled into a chaotic mess of wrinkles.On her phone, family group texts were relentlessly flashing. Her sister-in-law sent the first message, “Is Leo okay?”Mom snapped her head up, her eyes wild.Dad reached over, snatched the phone out of her