As Rowan rushed them to the hospital, his mind was a storm of rage and confusion. He tried calling Delaney, but her phone went straight to voicemail. He felt the weight of every second as he drove, his hazard lights flashing, his heart pounding in time with the sirens he prayed would reach them in time. In the backseat, Micah asked a question that shattered Rowan’s composure: “Is Mom mad at me?”
At the hospital, the chaos of the emergency room took over. As Elsie was whisked away to Trauma One, the doctors delivered the news that she was severely dehydrated and battling a dangerous infection—a condition that had escalated precisely because she had no fuel to fight it. Rowan was left in the hallway, clinging to Micah, promising that everything would be okay, even as his own world felt like it was crumbling.
