“I believe you.”
Sirens turned onto Aspen Ridge Lane less than six minutes later.
Paramedics took Lily’s temperature, wrapped her in warmed blankets, and placed heat packs near her torso while keeping her movements controlled. One of them asked me how long she had been inside.
“I don’t know.”
Lily’s eyes shifted toward the house.
The paramedic crouched to her level.
“Sweetheart, do you know?”
She shook her head.
Then she whispered, “Grandma said until I was sorry.”
The paramedic looked at me.
Neither of us said anything.
Police arrived while the ambulance crew was preparing to transport her. An officer asked where Taylor and Evelyn were. I told him Taylor’s car was gone, Evelyn’s was in the driveway, and I had not seen either woman.
Two officers entered the house.
They found Evelyn upstairs in Lily’s bedroom packing clothes into a suitcase.
She came into the garage furious.
“What are you doing here?” she demanded.
I had imagined rage if I saw her.
Instead, I felt a frightening calm.
“Lily was in the freezer.”
Evelyn’s face changed for less than a second.
Then she recovered.
“She climbed in there herself.”
Lily made a small sound inside the ambulance.
The officer beside me turned toward Evelyn.
“You said you were supervising her?”
“Yes.”
“And you didn’t know she was in the freezer?”
Evelyn folded her arms. “Children do stupid things.”
I looked at my daughter.
Lily had stopped trembling quite as violently, but she was staring at her grandmother with the rigid stillness of a child trying not to be noticed.
