Don’t Let Him Know I’m Still Alive

“Don’t let him know I’m still alive.”

The deputy stopped writing. Alan’s face changed.

Before I could ask who she meant, my phone buzzed in my coat pocket.

Daniel’s name lit up the screen.

For three seconds, nobody in Trauma Two moved. The monitor kept ticking. Rain kept tapping at the ambulance bay doors. The deputy stared at the glowing phone like the name alone had changed the temperature in the room.

Alan shook his head once. Not as a doctor. As a man who understood what a father might do with one bad second.