Chapter 2 - The Intensive Care Unit
The drive back to the hospital felt like a nightmare that would never end.
Marcus gripped the steering wheel so tightly his knuckles were completely white.
Neither of us spoke a word during the agonizing thirty-minute trip.
When we finally reached the pediatric intensive care unit, the silence was deafening.
A grim-faced doctor met us outside Chloe's room.
"We've managed to neutralize the chemical," the doctor explained softly.
"But the burns on her cheeks and jawline are severe third-degree."
My knees buckled, and Marcus had to catch me before I hit the floor.
"Will she be okay?" I sobbed into his chest.
"She is stable, but she will require multiple skin grafts," the doctor replied.
He warned us that her recovery would be long, painful, and deeply traumatic.
I walked into her room and saw my beautiful ten-year-old heavily bandaged.
She was unconscious, her tiny body hooked up to monitors and IV lines.
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I sat in the chair beside her bed and gently held her uninjured hand.
I promised her, whispering into the quiet room, that Arthur would pay for this.
