Her lips were blue.
Her entire body shook so violently that the plastic beneath her rattled.
“Lily!”
I reached inside and pulled her against my chest.
She felt frighteningly cold.
Too light.
Too small.
“I’ve got you,” I kept saying. “Daddy’s got you. You’re safe.”
Her hands clutched my shirt while her teeth chattered uncontrollably.
I wrapped my jacket around her and carried her away from the freezer, rubbing her back as panic climbed through me.
“How long were you in there?”
She shook her head.
“I don’t know.”
“Where’s Mom?”
Another shake.
I pulled out my phone.
Before I could make the call, Lily grabbed my wrist with both hands.
Her fingers were so cold they barely felt real against my skin.
“Daddy.”
Something in her voice stopped me.
I crouched in front of her.
“What happened, sweetheart?”
Her eyes drifted toward the open freezer.
What frightened me was not simply the fear on her face.
It was recognition.
She did not look like a child staring at the place where one terrible accident had happened.
She looked like someone seeing something familiar.
Something she had learned to fear.
Then she whispered, “Grandma put me in.”
For a second, I thought I had heard her wrong.
