Rebecca dropped to her knees beside her daughter.
Two police officers stood in the doorway behind her.
Her voice trembled.
“Where’s your inhaler?”
Sophie’s little hands clutched at her chest. Her lips were slightly blue. Each breath came out in a strained, whistling gasp.
Sophie struggled to speak.
“Mommy, I can’t—”
Behind them, Patricia stood perfectly motionless.
Arms folded across her chest.
Expression unchanged.
Patricia replied coldly.
“I put it away. She was being disrespectful.”
Rebecca snapped her head upward.
“You took an asthma inhaler away from a child?”
Patricia answered without emotion.
“She can breathe once she learns some respect.”
Rebecca wrapped Sophie tightly in her arms. The little girl’s body trembled against her.
She turned desperately toward the officers.
Her voice rose with urgency.
“She needs help right now—find that inhaler! This isn’t discipline, this is—”
But the officers didn’t move.
The paramedics were still minutes away.
Minutes Sophie didn’t have.
Rebecca could hear her own heartbeat pounding in her ears.
She had never been so afraid in her life.
Patricia’s calm was worse than shouting.
The officers’ radios crackled, but neither of them lifted one to their mouth.
One looked at Patricia.
The other looked at Sophie.
The room seemed to shrink around them.
