The Secret That Broke Us novel · Chapter 14 of 32

Chapter 14: Medic 4

Anders came home on a Thursday, nine days old and six pounds, eleven ounces.

Kristin had been gone for seven of them.

Her mother filed a report, and a deputy told her an adult who leaves a note has left on purpose.

Kristin's daughter stayed in the NICU, and nobody could say for how long.

That Saturday I went to the dispatch center at one in the morning with Anders asleep in a carrier on my chest.

Lena had said the cake was getting stale and the night shift wanted to see him.

It was a sheet cake with a headset piped on it in blue icing and the words WELCOME BACK JUNE.

Eleven people stood around it with plastic forks.

A man I'd worked beside for six years held Anders's foot between two fingers and whispered, "Look at the little guy."

I was laughing with my mouth full of frosting when the line on Position 3 lit up.

The new girl was on Position 3, twenty-two and four months in.

"911, what's the address of your emergency?"

I watched her face change.

"Ma'am, slow down. Ma'am, I can't understand..."

She looked over at me, and her hand on the headset started to shake.

"I'm here," I said, and I was already moving.

I slid into the chair beside her with my son strapped to my chest and held out my hand for the second headset.

On the line a woman was screaming that she'd gone off the road.

A deer, she said. A deer, a deer.

"Ma'am, this is June. You're safe with me. Where are you right now?"

"Highway 61, by the Knife River turnoff. The car's in the ditch. I'm okay, I'm okay, but the baby..."

My arm tightened around Anders.

"How old is the baby?"

"Six weeks. He's in the back and he went quiet. He won't wake up. He's the wrong color."

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