Chapter 2 - The House That Should Never Have Been Empty
By the third morning, I told my doctor I was leaving.
He was unhappy about it.
He wanted more monitoring.
I understood that.
But I had not heard my daughter’s voice since the accident, and no pain scale in the world could make that acceptable.
Tessa, my best friend, met me outside with a taxi because I was in no shape to drive.
Every bump in the road made my ribs scream.
When I unlocked my front door, I knew something was wrong immediately.
The house was too quiet.
“Ava?”
No answer.
I moved room by room until I reached the guest bedroom.
She was lying on top of the comforter fully dressed, clutching her teddy bear under her chin.
When she saw me, she froze for half a second like she thought I might not be real.
Then she ran into my arms so hard I nearly fell.
“Mom.”
I held her through pain I can still remember in my bones.
“Where’s Grandma?”
Ava’s face collapsed.
“She left.”
“When?”
“Yesterday.”
“Who stayed with you?”
“Uncle Logan came for a little while.”
“And last night?”
She stared at the floor.
“Nobody.”
For one awful second, the world went soundless.
Then she touched her side.
“It still hurts here,” she whispered. “And my head hurts.”
I called Tessa.
“Come back,” I said. “Now.”
An hour later we were back at the hospital, this time with paperwork in my hand and fury keeping me upright.
The doctor examined Ava, then looked straight at me.
“She should not have been discharged when she was,” he said. “And she absolutely should not have been left alone.”
I asked for every document they could legally give me.
Discharge notes.
Signatures.
May you like
Medical recommendations.
Anything that turned what happened into proof.
