Chapter 1 - The Ambulance Ride
The siren wailed as the ambulance sped away from the suburban neighborhood.
I held my daughter's freezing hand tightly between my own.
Her skin was pale, and her lips still held a terrifying shade of blue.
Marcus, the paramedic, was busy adjusting the oxygen mask over Emily's mouth.
He avoided making eye contact with me for the first five minutes of the ride.
I could not stop thinking about the absolute fear I had seen in my ex-husband's eyes.
Daniel was never afraid of anything, yet he was terrified of this paramedic.
"You said there was a teenage boy," I whispered over the sound of the siren.
Marcus checked the heart monitor before finally looking at me.
"His name was Lucas, and he was Vanessa's nephew."
"Why did you get called to the house for him?" I asked.
Marcus lowered his voice as if someone might be listening to us in the back of the moving ambulance.
"Daniel claimed the boy had gotten drunk and passed out in the snow."
"But when I examined Lucas, his core temperature was normal."
"He was completely unresponsive because he was heavily sedated, not frozen."
My stomach turned into a hard knot of ice.
"Did you tell the police?" I demanded.
"I filed a report with child services and the local precinct, but it disappeared entirely within twenty-four hours," Marcus replied.
He looked down at Emily's arm and gently pushed up her sweater sleeve.
Just below her elbow, there was a tiny, fresh puncture mark surrounded by a dark purple bruise.
"She wasn't being disciplined outside, Mrs. Carter," Marcus said grimly.
"Someone drugged your daughter and threw her onto the porch to make it look like exposure."
Suddenly, Emily's chest heaved, and she gasped for air.
Her eyes shot open, wide and filled with absolute panic.
She grabbed my wrist with surprising strength, digging her fingernails into my skin.
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"Mom, they weren't punishing me for being disrespectful," she choked out through the oxygen mask.
"I saw what they are keeping inside the basement."
