The lead guard shifted his weight on the hard floor, his rubber boots squeaking against the wax.

“Ma’am, we have cameras running twenty-four hours a day in this unit.”

My mother went completely still.

Her mouth opened slightly before she pressed her lips together into a thin line.

“I was trying to help my granddaughter,” she said quietly.

“You were trying to quiet the machine so nobody would look at her,” I said.

Nurse Elena walked over from the central desk, holding a printed paper strip from the monitor station in her right hand.

“The baby’s oxygen saturation dropped twenty points in under forty seconds,” Elena said, looking the lead guard straight in the eye.