“No,” I said quietly. “I did not.”

Before she could answer, Elena’s older brother walked in wearing scrubs.

The confidence drained out of my mother’s face.

Dr. Marcus Vale wasn’t only a pediatric surgeon. He chaired the hospital’s child-protection committee, and he’d been on the team that treated Noah when we came through the doors.

He placed two reports on the table.

“One documents the failure to obtain necessary medical care for Noah,” he said. “The other records what happened to Elena.”