would have revived her myself if Cathy hadn’t showed up and spoiled it.”
“You couldn’t have,” Cathy said coldly, as the efforts to save Jaime’s life continued in the exam room.
“Call me before you go back to the apartment,” Dan said to Austin and Cathy, as the police led Zoe away to put her in the squad car outside to take her to jail. She walked down the hall with her head held high and an icy, angry look on her face. She looked crazy and like a person Austin didn’t even know. Her plan to show off by “saving” Jaime had gone awry and she had tried to kill their child. Austin stared after her with a mixture of sorrow, hatred, and disbelief. “The police have to go in before you do, and collect evidence. It’s a crime scene,” Dan explained and Austin nodded. He wasn’t going to leave Jaime at the hospital until she was either safe again or dead.
Dan left them alone then, and Austin and Cathy waited until the medical team was satisfied that Jaime was stable, and then they let them go in to see her. She still appeared to be in a coma, but was actually heavily sedated. They had pumped her stomach too to get rid of the honey cake.
Cathy and Austin sat with her, Cathy offered to leave and he asked her not to. He didn’t want to be alone.
“You saved her life. Thank God you dropped by,” Austin said in a whisper.
“I don’t know why I did. I just wanted to say hi. The hand of fate, or of God. Something.” She wiped tears off her cheeks, and they sat looking at Jaime, so tiny on the bed, but she was breathing on her own.
Jaime opened her eyes finally at midnight, and looked sleepy but she recognized them both. Cathy hadn’t left yet. She and Austin had sat in silence side by side all night, watching Jaime. Dan Knoll had called repeatedly to see how she was. And Austin had called his parents and told them what happened. They both cried for what he and Jaime had gone through. Constance wasn’t surprised.
“Where’s Mommy?” Jaime asked them. “We were going to have a party. Mommy bought me a pink cake. And then Cathy came, and I had some, and I think I fell asleep.”
“I know, baby,” Austin said, and didn’t answer her question about Zoe. He didn’t want to lie or tell the truth. How did you tell a three-and-a-half-year-old that her mother tried to kill her and was in jail?
“Try and sleep some more,” Cathy said softly, and stroked her hair. Jaime drifted off again, and they left the room for a few minutes to talk. “What are you going to tell her?” she asked him and he shook his head.
“I have no idea. I don’t even know what to tell myself yet. What are they going to do to Zoe?” He looked overwhelmed by everything that had happened.
“They may put her in a psych hospital for an evaluation, to see if she’s competent to stand trial. I don’t know much about it.”
“Neither do I,” he said grimly. But they knew Jaime was going to survive now. She was no longer at risk. The danger was over, but so was life as she knew it. Cathy wondered if she would ever see her mother again, or if she would even remember her, if she lost her at three and a half. She had a long life ahead of her, and a father who loved her and would keep her safe from now on.
Dan Knoll came back in the morning with a detective and two policemen. Cathy had gone home the night before, and Austin had spent the night in a chair in Jaime’s room and looked it.
They had to go to the apartment with Austin to collect the evidence, and Cathy agreed to meet them there since she had seen what had happened, and the cake, and could identify it. Jaime was still dozing when they left, and Austin told the nurse they’d be back soon.
Austin unlocked the door to the apartment on Charles Street with his keys, and the police walked in. Zoe had taken hers with her in her purse when she was arrested. Cathy looked around as they walked in. It was the same scene they had left eighteen hours before, with Jaime dying. The EpiPen was on the floor after Cathy had used it. One of