Chapter 3
The next three weeks were the longest of my life.
Leo was released from the hospital after two days, but the doctor said the trauma of the attack would stick with him for a while.
He had night terrors almost every night.
He’d wake up screaming, gasping for air, begging me not to let Daddy come near him.
I couldn’t sleep either.
Every time I closed my eyes, I was back in that nursery, kneeling on the carpet, listening for a heartbeat that was almost gone.
I moved us into my mom’s house the day we left the hospital.
I couldn’t go back to our home.
Not after what happened there.
Every room smelled like Ethan.
Every corner held a memory I now knew was a lie.
Mom fussed over us, making Leo his favorite pancakes, sitting with him through the night terrors, never saying a word about how I’d missed all the signs.
She didn’t have to.
I was already saying it to myself every second of every day.
How could I have married a monster?
How could I have let him be alone with our son?
How could I have been so stupid?
The police investigation moved fast.
Detective Miller reopened Lila’s case within 48 hours of Ethan’s arrest.
Jake brought in every piece of evidence he’d kept in a box under his bed for 15 years.
A witness statement he’d written the night Lila died, saying he saw Ethan leave her room.
The empty inhaler canister the police had returned to her family after they’d ruled it an accident.
Photos of Lila, bright and smiling, taken just days before she died.
Forensics tested that old canister too.
Saline.
Exactly like Leo’s.
Ethan’s DNA was even on the rim, faint, but still there after all these years.
They charged Ethan with two crimes.
Attempted first-degree murder of Leo.
And first-degree manslaughter of Lila.
The prosecutor said they’d push for the maximum sentence.
Life without parole.
I had to give a formal deposition at the police station two weeks after the arrest.
Ethan’s lawyer was there, a sharp, cold woman in a tailored suit who didn’t even look at me when I walked in.
She spent three hours trying to tear my testimony apart.
Said I’d been drinking at the party.
Said I’d planted the evidence in the gym bag to get back at Ethan for “emotional abuse” she claimed he’d suffered at my hands.
Said I was a bitter, ambitious woman who cared more about her promotion than her own family.
I left the station that day shaking, so angry I could barely breathe.
Jake was waiting for me outside, leaning against his truck.
He’d come straight from his shift, still in his paramedic uniform.
He didn’t say anything at first.
Just opened the passenger door for me, handed me a hot coffee he’d bought on the way.
“Lawyers are paid to lie,” he said, when I finally stopped crying long enough to talk.
“Mine did the same thing when Lila died. Said I was a grieving kid making up stories to feel better. It doesn’t mean any of it’s true.”
We drove to a small park near my mom’s house.
Leo was with my aunt for the afternoon, so we sat on a bench and watched the kids play on the swings.
Jake told me about Lila that day.
How she loved to draw, how she wanted to be a vet when she grew up, how she’d followed him everywhere like a little shadow.
How he’d blamed himself for 15 years for not stopping Ethan that night.
For not speaking up louder.
For letting everyone write it off as an accident.
“I thought I’d never get justice for her,” he said, staring at his hands.
“Then I walked into that nursery. And there he was. Same face. Same evil. I knew in that second it wasn’t too late. Not for her. And not for Leo.”
I reached over and covered his hand with mine.
His skin was rough, calloused from years of lifting patients, but warm.
“You saved my son,” I said.
“If you hadn’t been the paramedic on call… if you hadn’t recognized him…”
I couldn’t finish the sentence.
I didn’t have to.
We both knew what would have happened.
Leo would be dead.
Ethan would have gotten away with it again.
Just like he did with Lila.
The trial date was set three months later.
The prosecutor called it an open-and-shut case.
The evidence was overwhelming.
But I couldn’t shake the fear.
What if the jury believed Ethan’s lawyer?
What if they thought I was lying?
What if he walked free?
What if he came after Leo again?
Jake started stopping by my mom’s house every evening after his shift.
He’d bring Leo a new dinosaur toy every time.
He’d sit on the floor and play with him for hours, making the T-Rex roar, chasing him around the living room until Leo laughed so hard he snort-laughed.
The night terrors started to get better when Jake was around.
Leo would ask if “Jake the paramedic” was coming over before he went to bed.
He said Jake made the bad dreams go away.
I started to look forward to Jake’s visits too.
Not just for Leo.
For me.
He was the only person who didn’t look at me like I was broken.
Like I was a victim.
He looked at me like I was strong.
May you like
Like I was going to get through this.
For the first time since that night, I started to believe him.
