“Bring her to the hospital.
Immediately.”
He ended the call, then stopped.
That sounded like another order.
Another command issued because he assumed everyone would move when he spoke.
He called back.
“Wait.”
The staff member answered again.
“Sir?”
Marcus stared through the glass doors of the emergency department.
“Ask Emily if she will come.
Tell her Zion is stable.
Tell her the doctor needs to speak with her.
And tell her…”
His voice caught.
“Tell her I’m asking.”
Twenty-five minutes later, Emily entered the hospital wearing the same plain clothes she had worn in the kitchen.
Her hair was still pulled into a loose bun.
She carried her bag against her side with both hands.
Marcus stood when he saw her.
Emily stopped several feet away.
Neither spoke at first.
The last time they had faced each other, Marcus had been holding Zion in a towel and humiliating her in front of the staff.
Now Marcus looked smaller somehow, even in the same expensive suit.
“He’s alive,” Marcus said quickly.
“He’s stable.”
Emily shut her eyes for a moment.
Relief crossed her face before anything else.
“Thank God.”
Marcus noticed that she had not asked whether she still had a job.
She had asked nothing about herself.
The doctor appeared and invited them into a consultation room.
“Emily, I need you to tell me everything you noticed before Mr.
Whitaker came home.
Start from the moment you first saw Zion.”
Emily sat upright in the chair.
“I was cleaning near the family room.
I heard him crying.
Not his normal crying.”
Marcus looked at her.
“You knew his normal crying?”
Emily glanced at him.
“You hear things when you work in a house every day, sir.”
The answer was respectful, but it cut deeper than anger would have.
She turned back to the doctor.
“I went to find Margaret.
She wasn’t in the nursery.
Zion was in his crib, and his face was red.
His hair was damp around the back of his head.”
“Was he covered?” the doctor asked.
“He had a light blanket.
I took it off.
I touched his neck and forehead.
He felt hot.”
Marcus remembered Emily’s hands trembling only after he had shouted at her.
Not while she was holding Zion.
