Chapter 2 - The Recording
The ambulance sirens could be heard before anyone spoke again.
I remained on the lawn with Ryan beside me.
He kept one hand behind my shoulders and the other close to my stomach without pressing against it.
“Stay with me.”
“I’m here.”
“Can you feel her?”
I closed my eyes.
Nothing.
Terror crawled through my chest.
“No.”
Ryan’s jaw tightened.
Behind us, Vanessa kept repeating the same sentence.
“It was an accident.”
Every time she said it, her voice grew weaker.
Ethan never lowered his phone.
My father finally approached him.
“Give me that.”
Ethan stepped backward.
“No.”
“You’re a minor.”
“So?”
“I said give me the phone.”
Ryan looked up.
“Don’t touch him.”
My father froze.
The warning in Ryan’s voice was unmistakable.
My mother suddenly grabbed the papers from the patio table.
I saw her through blurred vision.
She folded several pages beneath her arm.
“Mom.”
She stopped.
“What are you doing?”
“Nothing.”
Ryan followed my gaze.
“Put the documents down.”
My mother hesitated.
Vanessa immediately shouted.
“Why are you acting like we planned this?”
Nobody had accused them of planning anything.
Not yet.
That sentence changed the atmosphere.
Ryan stared at Vanessa.
“What exactly did you plan?”
Her mouth opened.
Nothing came out.
The ambulance reached the driveway.
Two paramedics rushed through the side gate.
One knelt beside me.
“I’m Daniel.”
He spoke calmly.
“We’re going to take care of you.”
Another paramedic asked Ryan what had happened.
Ryan pointed toward Ethan.
“It’s recorded.”
My father stepped forward.
“She fell.”
Ethan looked directly at him.
“No, she didn’t.”
The paramedic glanced between them.
“Sir, please step back.”
My father obeyed reluctantly.
They placed me carefully onto a stretcher.
As they lifted me, I finally felt something.
A tiny movement.
Weak.
Almost impossible to notice.
My breath caught.
“She moved.”
Ryan leaned closer.
“What?”
“She moved.”
Relief crossed his face for half a second.
Then the paramedic cautioned us.
“That’s encouraging, but we still need to evaluate both of you immediately.”
Ryan climbed into the ambulance with me.
Before the doors closed, I saw two police cars pull into the driveway.
One officer approached Ethan.
Another moved toward Vanessa.
Vanessa stopped crying.
She looked suddenly pale.
My mother still held several folded pages beneath her arm.
And my father stood between the patio and the gate as if trying to decide which disaster to control first.
The ambulance doors closed.
Ryan took my hand.
I stared at the ceiling.
“What if something happens to her?”
“We’re not guessing.”
His thumb moved across my fingers.
“We get facts.”
I swallowed.
“Ryan.”
“Yes?”
“Vanessa said something.”
“I heard.”
“She said, ‘Why are you acting like we planned this?’”
Ryan’s expression hardened.
“I heard that too.”
Twenty minutes later, as the ambulance carried us toward St. Catherine Medical Center, Ethan’s recording was already being copied onto a police evidence system.
But the video contained something none of us had noticed.
Something Vanessa had said only seconds before she kicked me.
Three quiet words.
May you like
Words directed toward my mother.
“Is this enough?”
