Chapter 4 - THE MAN WHO NEVER ARRIVED
By noon, Ray’s grief had turned into fury.
He wanted Daniel found.
Every unanswered phone call became proof.
Every empty chair beside Emily’s hospital bed became betrayal.
“She died alone because of him,” Ray told Hannah.
Hannah had learned not to agree with grief when grief was guessing.
“We don’t know what happened.”
“He should’ve been here.”
“Yes.”
That answer surprised him.
She continued.
“But there’s a difference between what should have happened and what actually happened.”
Ray hated that sentence.
At 1:15 p.m., a police officer arrived.
Not because Daniel was under investigation.
Because Daniel Bennett had been in a highway accident twelve miles south of the hospital.
His car had left the road during heavy rain shortly after midnight.
He was alive.
He had been taken unconscious to another hospital.
Ray stopped speaking.
According to police, Daniel’s phone had been found under the passenger seat.
The screen displayed multiple outgoing calls to Emily.
He had been driving toward the hospital when he crashed.
Ray stared at the officer.
“No.”
“I’m sorry?”
“He left her alone.”
“The accident occurred while he was traveling here.”
Ray’s anger suddenly had nowhere to go.
That evening, Daniel regained consciousness.
His first question was:
“Is Emily okay?”
Nobody wanted to answer.
Ray did not go to see him.
He sat beside the baby instead.
A nurse asked whether he wanted to call Daniel’s hospital.
“No.”
“Mr. Mercer—”
“He took my daughter away.”
Hannah stopped.
“Did he?”
Ray looked at her.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You told me you hadn’t spoken to Emily in three years.”
“She chose him.”
“Or you told her not to come back.”
Ray’s face hardened.
“You weren’t there.”
“No.”
Hannah nodded toward the NICU.
“But neither were you.”
The words hit harder than any insult.
Ray looked down at his granddaughter.
Her tiny chest rose.
Fell.
Rose again.
May you like
He had spent three years telling himself Emily abandoned him.
Maybe because the alternative required admitting he had made the door difficult to reopen.
