When the car pulled over onto the highway shoulder, I thought Lucas just needed to use the restroom. “Sophie’s asleep. Try not to wake her,” I said, pulling my daughter’s little blanket up higher. Lucas didn’t look back, his fingers drumming on the steering wheel. “Grace. Take Sophie and get out of the car.” I froze. “What?” From the back seat, Sarah spoke in a soft voice. “Lucas, darling, it’s alright. We can manage, it’ll just be a little crowded.” Her daughter, Ava, immediately started to cry. “No! I don’t want to sit with that sick little girl! She was coughing all over!” Lucas turned around, and his eyes were colder than I had ever seen them. “Did you hear me? Get out.” “My sister Tiffany is already on her way. She’ll be here in half an hour.” “You two can wait here.” The day before Christmas Eve, on the side of the highway, in below-freezing temperatures. I held my three-year-old daughter and watched him start the car again. The red of the taillights grew smaller and smaller in the swirling snow. Until they disappeared completely. … The snow was coming down harder now. I stood by the guardrail on the shoulder, holding Sophie, trying to shield her from the wind with my own body. “Mommy, where’s Daddy?” Sophie whispered, her cheeks flushed red from the cold. “Daddy… Daddy went on ahead to Grandma’s house,” I forced a smile. “Aunt Tiffany is coming to get us soon.” “But it’s cold…” I wrapped her inside my down coat, using my scarf to cover her head. My phone had 30% battery left. I called Tiffany. Once. Twice. Three times. Finally, she answered. “Grace? What’s up?” The background was loud, like she was at a party. “Tiffany, your brother said you were coming to pick us up. Where are you?” “Huh? Pick you up?” Tiffany paused. “Oh, right, right, I remember. He told me.” “But I’m out with friends right now, I can’t really leave.” “You guys just wait a bit, I’ll head over later.” “Tiffany, it’s freezing on the highway. Sophie can’t take it…” “Oh, come on, Grace, don’t be so dramatic. What’s wrong with waiting a little?” “My brother said Sarah and Ava can’t be out in the wind, that he had to get them home right away.” “There are two of you, an adult and a kid. A little wait won’t kill you.” The line went dead. I clutched my phone, my fingers numb with cold. I tried Lucas. Voicemail. Again. Still voicemail. Sophie was shivering in my arms. “Mommy, I want to go home…” “Soon, sweetie. We’ll be home very soon,” I whispered, kissing her forehead. My eyes burned. In four years of marriage, I never knew Lucas could be this cruel. To abandon his own wife and daughter on the highway for another woman’s child. All because Ava whined, “I don’t want to sit with that sick little girl.” Headlights cut through the gloom in the distance. I waved frantically. A black SUV slowed and stopped in front of us. The window rolled down, revealing a young man. “Need some help?” I felt like I was grabbing a lifeline. “Could you give us a ride? Just to the next service station would be amazing!” The man looked at the child in my arms and frowned. “Get in.” “Thank you! Thank you so much!” I reached for the door handle… “Grace?” I froze. Another head popped out from the car. It was Lucas’s cousin, Ryan. He looked at me, then at the empty stretch of highway. “Grace, what are you doing out here? Where’s Lucas?” I quickly explained what had happened. When I finished, Ryan’s face was dark with fury. “Is he insane? He left you and Sophie out here?” “So Sarah’s daughter is a delicate flower, but his own isn’t human?” He cursed under his breath, then said to the driver, “Rick, let’s get them in the car. We can squeeze.” The front was full, and the back seat was packed next to Ryan. “There’s no room…” the driver said, looking troubled. Ryan immediately got out of the car. “You guys go on. I’ll wait here.” “No way!” “Just go!” Ryan pushed me toward the car. “Sophie’s lips are turning blue. She can’t stay out in this cold any longer!” I climbed into the back seat with Sophie in my arms. The blast of warm air was so intense it made my frozen skin ache. Ryan shut the door and knocked on the window. “Grace, call me when you get to the service station! I’ll have my brother come get you!” “Ryan, it’s too cold out here, what will you do…” “I’m a grown man, I’ll be fine! Think about the kid! Now go!” The car pulled away. Through the rear window, I watched Ryan’s figure shrink in the swirling snow. A lump formed in my throat. My own husband had abandoned us on a highway. And in the end, it was a near-stranger who came to my aid. Sophie fell asleep in my arms, her small face an unhealthy shade of red. I touched her forehead. She was burning up. “Sir, can you please go faster? My daughter has a fever!” The driver nodded and accelerated. I took out my phone, intending to call Tiffany again. No signal. The highway cut through a mountainous area, where service was spotty. “How much further to the service station?” “About fifteen miles. In this weather, at least half an hour.” Half an hour… I held Sophie tighter, constantly checking her temperature. She was getting hotter. “Baby, wake up. Don’t sleep…” Sophie’s eyes fluttered open. “Mommy, I don’t feel good…” “I know, sweetie. We’re almost at the hospital. Just hold on a little longer.” She suddenly started coughing, a deep, wracking cough that made her face turn purple. I patted her back, the tears finally starting to fall. “Sir, please, I’m begging you, go faster!” The driver was getting anxious too. “This is as fast as I can go! The roads are slick with ice!” Sophie’s coughing grew more violent, her breathing a ragged, wheezing sound. “Mommy… I can’t… breathe…” I unzipped her coat and saw her chest heaving violently. It was acute pneumonia. She’d had it once before, last year. She almost didn’t make it. “Sophie, look at Mommy. Don’t close your eyes!” “Mommy will tell you a story, about the little white rabbit…” Her eyes were half-lidded, her breathing growing fainter. I started pounding on the window like a madwoman. “Help! My daughter is dying! Somebody help!” But on the highway, there was nothing but the wind and the snow. The SUV finally pulled into the service station. I ran with Sophie into the convenience store. “Is there a doctor? My daughter is sick, she needs help!” The clerk looked terrified. “We… we don’t have a doctor here…” “Call 911! Now!” “The cell tower is down… The call won’t go through…” My legs gave out, and I nearly collapsed. In my arms, Sophie had gone silent. At the small motel attached to the service station, the owner rummaged around and found a box of fever reducer and some antibiotics. “Maybe try giving her this?” My hands were shaking so badly I couldn’t tear the packaging open. Sophie lay across my lap, her breathing so shallow it seemed like it could stop at any moment. I managed to get the pill into her mouth, but she didn’t even have the strength to swallow. “Sophie, please, swallow it. I’m begging you…” The pill, dissolved in saliva, trickled out of the corner of her mouth. The motel owner couldn’t bear to watch. “Look, I can drive you to the county hospital. But with this snow, the roads might be closed…” “Go! We have to go now!” I pulled all the cash I had from my wallet and shoved it at him. “Please!” He clenched his jaw. “Alright. I’ll risk it.” The car crawled along the snow-covered road. With every bump, Sophie’s small body seemed to go limper. I held her hand, talking nonstop. “Sophie, remember how you wanted to go to Disneyland? Mommy will take you.” “We’ll ride the biggest carousel.” “And you can wear an Elsa dress, right?” “Mommy will take you to Universal Studios, too. We’ll see the Transformers, your big heroes, okay?” Her eyelashes fluttered. But her eyes remained closed. Suddenly, my phone vibrated. Signal! My hands trembling, I dialed Lucas’s number. It rang for a long time before he finally picked up. “Hello?” The background was quiet, like he was at home. “Lucas…” My voice was so hoarse I could barely speak. “Sophie is sick. It’s… it’s really bad…” “Where are you?” His voice was terrifyingly calm. “On the way to the county hospital. You have to come…” “Grace,” he interrupted me. “Didn’t Tiffany go to pick you up?” “She never came! She never showed up!” “That’s impossible. She just posted on social media that she was on her way.” I froze. I opened my social media app and found Tiffany’s profile. Her latest post, ten minutes ago. A selfie, with the highway visible in the background. The caption read: “On my way to pick up my sister-in-law! So sweet of my big bro to think of them~” The location tag was sixty miles away from us. She hadn’t moved. She was lying to Lucas. And she was lying to me. “See?” Lucas said. “Tiffany will be there any minute. Just wait.” “We can’t wait! Sophie is dying! Our daughter is dying, Lucas!” “Grace,” his voice turned cold. “It’s Christmas. Don’t say such unlucky things. What’s all this talk about dying?” “Sarah and Ava just got here, and Mom is in a great mood. Don’t ruin it.” “When Tiffany gets you, just take Sophie to a clinic.” “Kids get fevers. It’s normal. She’s not going to die. Stop being so dramatic. Be good.” He hung up. I stared at my phone, the blood turning to ice in my veins. The driver glanced at me in the rearview mirror. “Your husband?” I nodded. “Bastard,” he muttered. “Hang on tight. I know a shortcut. We can’t let anything happen to this little girl.” The car turned onto a mountain road. The snow was even heavier here. I could barely hear Sophie breathing anymore. I felt for her heartbeat. It was so faint, it felt like a hallucination. “Sophie… don’t scare Mommy…” “Mommy was wrong. Mommy was an idiot to fall in love!” “Mommy was wrong to marry him…” “I shouldn’t have let you suffer…” Sobbing, I reached into an inner pocket and pulled out a small, button-sized metal device. My father had given it to me. “Gracie,” he had said, “the Harrison family has always favored sons. If they ever mistreat you because Sophie is a girl, press this.” I pressed it. There was no sound. But I knew a signal had been sent. My father had promised that if I ever pressed it, his people would be there within three hours. But three hours… Could my Sophie last for three hours? We finally reached the county hospital. I burst into the emergency room carrying Sophie, my throat too raw to scream. A nurse saw Sophie’s condition and immediately called for a doctor. “Acute pneumonia! Heart rate is dropping! Get ready to resuscitate!” I was blocked from entering the trauma room. Through the glass, I watched as doctors intubated Sophie, hooking her up to monitors. Her tiny body, lying on that big bed, looked like it could vanish at any moment. I sank to the floor in the corner, shaking uncontrollably. My phone rang again. Lucas. I answered, but said nothing. “Grace, where are you now?” he asked, his voice impatient. “My mother is waiting to eat dinner.” I opened my mouth, but no sound came out. “Talk to me!” “The hospital…” I managed to squeeze out the words. “Sophie… they’re trying to save her…” “What?” He paused. “What are you doing at a hospital? Where’s Tiffany?” “She didn’t come…” “Impossible. She just texted me. She said she picked you up.” I opened our family group chat. Twenty minutes ago, she had sent a message: “Bro, got them. On our way back now.” Attached was a blurry photo taken from inside a car. The back of a woman in the passenger seat, wearing a coat that looked just like mine. It was an old photo she had taken of me. She was playing him. With a picture she had saved for this very purpose. “She’s lying,” I said. “Lucas, you need to come to the hospital. Now.” There was a few seconds of silence. “Grace. Are you trying to get out of coming for Christmas?” “Are you upset that Sarah is here?” “Is that why you’re making up these lies?” I was stunned. “You think I’m lying to you?” “What else am I supposed to think?” he scoffed. “Why would Tiffany lie to me?” “She’s my sister. What are you?” “A woman who was useless after giving me a daughter.” I gripped the phone, my nails digging into my palm. “Lucas, if Sophie dies today, I will never forgive you as long as I live.” “Whatever,” he said. “Besides, my mother already said Sarah can still have a son.” “If you can’t give me a son, you should make way for someone who can.” He hung up. I listened to the dial tone, slowly sliding to the floor. The doors to the trauma room opened.
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