“”I don’t know. She says something is moving inside her.””
He switched on the lamp, saw her face, and stopped asking questions.
Fifteen minutes later, we were driving through the empty streets of Chicago toward the ER. I sat with Chloe’s hand locked inside mine while she groaned in the backseat.
“”Don’t let them come out of my mouth,”” she begged.
That scared me more than anything she’d said yet.
At the hospital, they took her back immediately. A nurse asked what she’d eaten, but Chloe kept talking about the little fish fighting inside her.胶The doctor ordered an X-ray.
When she came back, her jaw was tight.
She put the image on the lightboard.
Thirty-six small spheres glowed inside my daughter’s abdomen, stuck together in two twisted chains.
“”They’re magnets,”” the doctor said. “”Thirty-six.””
My knees nearly gave out.
Ethan grabbed my arm. Not to steady me.
He squeezed hard.
“”What did you do to her?””
I stared at him. “”What did you just say?””
“”You were with her. You made dinner. You put her to bed.””
He said it in front of the doctor and nurses, like he’d already decided there was only one person to blame.
“”She’s our daughter,”” I whispered. “”How could you think that I—””
“”Then explain how she ended up with thirty-six magnets in her stomach.””
I couldn’t.
Then I remembered the magnetic sculpture in our dining room: dozens of small black balls Ethan had bought for his office. Chloe had tried to play with it before, which was exactly why I’d locked it inside the display cabinet.
With a key.
I dug through my bag and pulled out my keychain.
The cabinet key was still there.
“”It was locked,”” I said.
Ethan went pale.
Before either of us could say more, the doctor called surgery. The magnets couldn’t stay inside Chloe. We had to sign the consent forms immediately.
While they prepared her, I went to the stretcher.
“”Sweetheart, I need you to tell me who gave you the little fish.””
Her eyes filled with tears.
“”I can’t.””
“”Why?””
She looked toward the doorway. Ethan was standing there on the phone with his mother.
Then Chloe motioned me closer.
“”They told me that if I told… you were going to die.””
Everything inside me went cold.
“”Who told you that?””
Chloe opened her mouth.
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