Chapter 8 - The Emergency at Children's Hospital
"Daisy!" Jenna screamed, rushing to the side of the bed.
The little girl was thrashing under the sheets, her lips turning a faint, alarming shade of blue as she fought to draw breath into her lungs.
"She can't breathe!" Jenna panicked, her hands trembling uncontrollably as she lifted Daisy into her arms. "Matthew! She can't breathe!"
Matthew reacted instantly, his corporate training and executive decisiveness taking over. He grabbed his phone, speed-dialing Thomas while pulling a heavy wool blanket off the armchair.
"Thomas! Get the car around to the front entrance RIGHT NOW!" Matthew shouted into the phone. He reached down, scooped Daisy—blanket and all—into his arms, and grabbed Jenna’s hand. "Come on! Boston Children's Hospital is four minutes away!"
They sprinted down the grand staircase, flying past a startled Arthur, and burst through the front doors into the freezing night. Thomas had already opened the rear door of the running Maybach.
Matthew slid into the back seat, holding Daisy tightly against his chest, keeping her head elevated as Jenna scrambled in beside him, sobbing hysterically as she held her daughter's tiny, cold hand.
"Hold on, baby! Please hold on!" Jenna wept. "Mommy's right here!"
"Step on it, Thomas!" Matthew roared toward the front seat.
The Maybach surged forward, its tires biting into the icy asphalt as it blew through two red lights along Charles Street, its emergency hazard lights flashing wildly.
Inside the car, Matthew kept his hand pressed against Daisy’s back, feeling the ragged, shallow rattling in her chest. "Stay with us, little one," Matthew whispered into her pale hair, his own heart pounding with a terrifying, suffocating fear he had never experienced in his entire life. He realized in that frantic, agonizing four-minute drive that if anything happened to this little girl, his world would crumble into dust.
The Maybach pulled up to the red-lit bay of the Boston Children's Hospital Emergency Department.
Matthew leaped out of the car before it had even fully stopped, carrying Daisy through the sliding glass doors into the warm, bright triage area.
"I NEED A PEDIATRIC RESUSCITATION TEAM!" Matthew bellowed, his voice echoing through the busy emergency room like an explosion. "PEDIATRIC RESPIRATORY DISTRESS!"
Within seconds, three nurses and an emergency physician rushed toward them with a mobile gurney.
"What's her name?!" the doctor asked, taking Daisy from Matthew’s arms and laying her on the gurney as they wheeled her rapidly down the hallway toward Trauma Room 2.
"Daisy Carter! She's five!" Jenna cried out, chasing after the gurney.
"History of asthma?" the nurse asked, placing an oxygen mask over Daisy's small face.
"No! She's never had this before!" Jenna sobbed.
"Clear the room!" the doctor ordered as they pushed through the double doors of Trauma Room 2. "Prep an albuterol nebulizer and epinephrine!"
A nurse stepped in front of Jenna and Matthew, stopping them at the threshold. "Ma'am, sir, you have to wait outside!"
"That's my daughter!" Jenna screamed, trying to push past her.
Matthew caught Jenna around the waist, pulling her back into his arms, holding her tight against his chest as the doors swung shut, cutting off their view of Daisy.
Jenna collapsed against Matthew’s suit jacket, her body shaking with violent, uncontrollable sobs, her fingers clutching his lapels as if he were the only anchor keeping her from floating away into the abyss.
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"She's going to be okay, Jenna," Matthew whispered fiercely into her hair, his own tears finally breaking through his eyes, dropping onto her forehead. "She's going to be okay. I promise you. I promise."
He held her in the sterile, fluorescent-lit hallway of the hospital, refusing to let go, his arms locked around her like an iron shield against the dark.
