Chapter 2 - The Confrontation
By 9:00 p.m., Brinley was asleep in the pediatric intensive care unit, hooked up to a slow-drip IV to treat her severe dehydration and refeeding syndrome. I stood by her bedside, watching her tiny chest rise and fall. She looked like a fragile doll left in a damp attic.
The hallway doors burst open, and the sound of heavy footsteps echoed through the quiet wing. I stepped out of the room just in time to see Derek being escorted down the corridor by two police officers. He wasn't in handcuffs yet, but his face was flushed, his expensive leather jacket wrinkled.
"Rachel!" Derek shouted when he saw me. "What the hell is going on? The cops dragged me out of my apartment! They're saying Mom and Dad locked Brinley up? That's impossible! You're hysterical, you've always been crazy about her!"
I didn't yell. I walked up to him until I could smell the stale beer on his breath. I raised my hand and slapped him across the face with every ounce of strength five years of manual labor in Germany had given me. The crack resounded through the entire ward.
"She weighs thirty-four pounds, Derek," I whispered, my voice vibrating with a quiet, terrifying rage. "She has broken bones that healed crooked because nobody took her to a doctor. She was chained to a water pipe in your mother's basement while you were drinking at sports bars and your parents were packing for a cruise."
Derek stumbled back, clutching his cheek. For a fraction of a second, genuine horror crossed his features, quickly replaced by defensive cowardice. "I... I didn't know! Mom said Brinley was homeschooled because of her anxiety! She said you were stressing her out with your calls!"
"You're her father," I said, the word tasting like poison. "You lived twenty minutes away. You never checked on her. You took my money to pay your car insurance while your daughter was eating scraps off a concrete floor. You are just as guilty as they are."
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Detective Vance stepped between us, putting a heavy hand on Derek's shoulder. "Derek Merritt, you're coming with us down to the station for questioning regarding complicity in child endangerment and criminal neglect. Move."
As they led him away, he looked back at me, pleading, but I had already turned my back on him. My focus was solely on the room behind me, where my real battle was just beginning.
