Chapter 3 - The Sterile White Room
The drive to Sedona Medical Center was a blur. David sat in the back of the ambulance, whispering promises into Leo's matted hair. Maya sat quietly beside a paramedic, holding her brother's dirt-caked shoe.
Sarah arrived thirty minutes later.
When David’s wife burst through the doors of the pediatric trauma ward, she looked like a ghost. She hadn't slept a full night in over a year. When she saw the boy sitting in the hospital bed, hooked to an IV, she collapsed to her knees.
"Leo," she choked out, crawling toward the bed. "Leo..."
Leo looked at her, his dark eyes adjusting to the bright fluorescent lights. For a long, agonizing moment, he just stared. Then, a tiny, fractured voice echoed in the silent room.
"Mom?"
Sarah threw her arms around him, weeping with such absolute brokenness that even the attending nurses had to turn away and wipe their eyes. David wrapped his arms around both of them, burying his face in his wife’s shoulder. They were whole again. Shattered, bleeding, but whole.
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Later that night, after Leo had finally fallen asleep under heavy sedation, Detective Miller pulled David into the hallway.
"Mr. Vance, we’ve secured your sister’s property," the detective said, his face grim. "I've been on the force for twenty years, and I've never seen anything like it. We need to talk about how she did this."
