I stopped and looked down at him without any warmth at all.

“Where is my daughter?”

“Inside. She’s alive, she’s conscious, and paramedics are with her.”

The word alive went through my chest like something being pulled out of a wound. I took one slow breath.

“Then why are those four adults still standing in my house?”

Norman’s jaw tightened. “Your wife refused us entry. She told my officers it was a private family discipline matter. Then her mother claimed the child had fallen down outside.