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“Why aren’t you at school?”
None of us answered quickly enough.
Her gaze moved from Daniel to Eric.
“You told people he hurt me.”
Eric stood.
“I was trying to protect you.”
“I told you he didn’t.”
“Sophie, sometimes children—”
“I am not lying!”
The heart monitor beside her bed began beeping faster. A nurse entered and asked everyone except me to leave.
Sophie turned her face toward the wall.
“They keep saying they believe me, but they don’t.”
I sat beside her.
“The doctors believe you.”
“What about you?”
The question cut deeper than anything Eric had said.
“I believe you.”
“Did you believe me yesterday?”
I remembered looking away from Daniel through the glass.
“I was frightened,” I admitted. “And for one moment, I let that fear become doubt. I am so sorry.”
Dr. Shah arrived with a neurosurgeon later that morning. Additional blood tests showed that Sophie’s hCG remained elevated. Another tumor marker was also abnormal.
They needed a small tissue sample to identify the exact tumor and choose the safest treatment.
“Will you cut my head open?” Sophie asked.
The neurosurgeon explained that the procedure would be performed through a small opening using image guidance. He spoke carefully, without making promises he could not keep.
Sophie listened, clutching her rabbit.
“Can the tumor hear us?”
“No,” he said.
“Good. I don’t want it to know we found it.”
The biopsy was scheduled for the following morning.
After the doctors left, Eric approached Daniel in the hallway.
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