The man introduced himself as Mark Harris, Emily’s older brother.

He appeared far too shaken to be pretending. His face carried the pale, exhausted look of someone watching his family unravel right before his eyes.

“Lily called me crying,” Mark explained. “I was only ten minutes away. I arrived right after you did.”

Ethan watched him closely. “She said nobody listened to her.”

Mark swallowed hard. “She called me first, but I told her to stay inside until I got there. She panicked and ran out anyway.”

Lily stood quietly near the doorway, wrapping her arms tightly around herself.

Ethan looked back at Emily. Her breathing remained weak and uneven. Her skin felt cold and damp. He had handled medical emergencies before, but something about this situation felt wrong. The cleaning bottle bothered him. The open front door bothered him. Lily’s silence bothered him even more.

“We’re not waiting,” Ethan said firmly. “Help me get her to the hospital.”

Mark hesitated. “Shouldn’t we wait for an ambulance?”

“She may not survive that long.”

Ethan carefully lifted Emily into his arms and carried her to the truck. Lily climbed into the back seat and held her mother’s hand during the entire drive, whispering repeatedly, “Please wake up, Mom… please wake up.”

They arrived at St. Mercy Hospital within seven minutes.

Doctors immediately rushed Emily through the emergency doors. Ethan stayed beside Lily while Mark paced nervously across the waiting room, repeatedly wiping sweat from his trembling face.

When a doctor finally returned, her expression was grim.

“She’s stable for now,” the doctor said carefully. “But she was exposed to some kind of to.xic substance. We’re running additional tests.”

Mark stumbled backward slightly. “To.xic? Emily would never take something like that.”

“We’re not suggesting she did,” the doctor answered cautiously. “We’re saying this may not have been an ac.ci.de.nt.”

Lily suddenly became completely motionless.

Ethan noticed immediately.

He knelt in front of her. “Lily, before your mom collapsed, did you see someone inside the house?”

Her lower lip shook. She glanced at Mark, then slowly looked back at Ethan.

“I didn’t think he noticed me,” she whispered softly.

Mark’s face lost all color. “Who?”

“The man in the kitchen,” Lily said quietly. “I hid behind the refrigerator. He had a bottle… and he poured something into Mom’s drink.”

The waiting room suddenly felt silent around them.

Ethan kept his tone steady. “Did you recognize him?”

Lily slowly shook her head. “He wore dark work clothes… and he had a scratch on his face.”

Mark dropped heavily into a chair, trembling.

Ethan rose to his feet. Emily’s house was no longer simply the place where she collapsed.

It was now a crime scene.

He looked directly at Mark. “Stay here. Don’t let anyone near Lily or Emily unless they have hospital identification.”

Mark looked up nervously. “Where are you going?”

Ethan’s expression hardened.

“Back to the house,” he replied. “Before the person responsible returns to erase the evidence he left behind.”

By the time Ethan arrived back at Emily’s home, darkness had covered the neighborhood.

The front door remained slightly open. Ethan slipped on a pair of medical gloves he had taken from the hospital supply station and carefully moved through the house. The grocery bags still lay scattered across the hallway floor. The kitchen light buzzed softly overhead. On the tile, the fa!nt outline where Emily had col.lap.sed was still visible.

This time, Ethan noticed details pan!c had hidden earlier.

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