Her shriek came out of the small speaker and bounced sharply off the yellow-tiled walls of the pediatric ward.

At the nurses’ station fifteen feet away, two nurses in blue scrubs stopped typing and looked up.

A doctor holding an intake folder stopped beside the linen cart, his eyes locking on my face.

“Don’t call this number again,” I said.

“We’re taking Lily where you’ll never lay eyes on her,” Patricia hissed.

“You’re nothing to her now.”

The line clicked off with a hard, final tone, leaving the screen dark in my hand.

Under the flat glare of the fluorescent lights, I stood completely still while the nurses at the desk began to whisper.