“Theo… and this is Amelie,” he said, pressing the infant closer to his chest.
Within minutes, Dr. Samuel Hart, the attending pediatrician, and a security officer arrived. Theo flinched at every sudden movement, instinctively shielding Amelie.
“Please don’t take her,” he begged. “She cries when I’m not with her.”
Dr. Hart crouched down, speaking calmly. “No one is taking her. But I need to know, Theo, what happened?”
Theo glanced nervously toward the door before speaking. “It’s my stepfather. He… he hits me when Mom is asleep. Tonight he got angry because Amelie wouldn’t stop crying. He said… he said he’d make her quiet forever. I had to leave.”
The words hit Olivia like a blow. Dr. Hart exchanged a grave look with the security officer before calling for the social worker and notifying the police.
Outside, a winter storm battered the hospital windows, snow piling in silent heaps. Inside, Theo held Amelie tightly, unaware that his courage had already set a life-saving chain of events into motion.
continúa en la página siguiente
