The Surrogate Wife novel · Chapter 5 of 16

Chapter 5: The Emergency Room

"Ethan, listen to me. Put the phone on speaker and put it down next to Noah."

"Okay."

"Don't pick him up. Just stay by him and talk to him."

I was already down the stairs with my keys.

I called 911 from the car on my other phone.

I gave them the address in Stonington.

"Fourteen months. High fever. I think he's having a seizure. There's a five-year-old with him and an adult who won't wake up."

"Are you in the home, ma'am?"

"I'm ten minutes away. I'll be eight."

Ethan's voice came through the car speakers the whole way.

"His eyes are funny, Mommy."

"I know. You're doing so good. Keep talking to him."

"I'm singing the boat song."

"That's perfect, baby."

The ambulance beat me by one minute.

The front door was wide open and the porch lights were on.

A paramedic was coming down the stairs with Noah on a little board.

His lips were grey.

His arms were stiff and twitching.

"I'm his mother."

"Get in."

Ethan stood in the hall in his pajamas.

Lucas was behind him, sucking his thumb.

A second paramedic was crouched by the couch.

Kendra lay across it with one arm hanging down.

An empty wine bottle was on the rug.

There was a second one on its side under the coffee table.

"She's breathing," the paramedic said. "She's just out cold."

A police officer came in behind him.

"Ma'am, you've got an order against you for this house."

"I know. Call my husband. Call anybody. But I'm not leaving my other two sons with her."

He looked at the bottles.

He looked at Ethan's face.

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