Chapter 11 - The Triage of Shadows
The living room, which had been a warzone forty minutes prior, was now filled with the cold, sterile light of emergency service vehicle strobes.
Red and blue light echoed across the off-white plaster walls, bouncing off the framed family photographs and casting long, flickering shadows across the mahogany floorboards.
Two paramedics in dark blue uniforms were knelt in front of the sofa, where Leo sat wrapped in a thick, navy-blue wool blanket. One of the paramedics, a gentle woman with dark hair named Clara, was using a small penlight to examine the boy’s dilated pupils.
"No sign of concussion, Mr. Vance," Clara said quietly, turning to Daniel, who was standing nearby holding Lily in a matching blue blanket. "The swelling on his left cheek is significant, but the zygomatic arch isn't fractured. We’ll want to take him to Westchester General for an X-ray just to be entirely sure, but he’s a tough little guy."
Daniel nodded slowly, his fingers gently rubbing Lily’s back as the toddler slept soundly against his shoulder, exhausted from hours of crying.
"Thank you, Clara," Daniel whispered.
Leo looked up from beneath his blanket. His left eye was partially swollen shut, but his right eye was clear, focused on his father’s face.
"Dad?" Leo asked softly.
Daniel immediately knelt down in front of his son, bringing his face level with the boy's. "I'm right here, Leo."
"Is... is she ever coming back?"
Daniel reached out, taking Leo’s small, cold hand in his own broad palm. He squeezed it gently, feeling the delicate bones beneath the skin—the bones he had sworn to protect with his life.
"No, Leo," Daniel said, his voice ringing with absolute, unbreakable certainty. "She is never, ever coming back. She is going to a very dark place for a very long time."
Leo looked down at the carpet where the leather belt had been lying earlier. The spot was empty now—the belt was sitting inside a brown paper evidence bag in the back of a State Police cruiser outside.
"She said... she said you were gonna leave us too," Leo murmured, his voice barely audible over the hum of the paramedic's heart monitor. "When the police came... I thought they were taking you away."
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Daniel reached up, placing his palm gently against the uninjured side of Leo’s head, pulling his son’s forehead against his own.
"I am never leaving you, Leo," Daniel breathed into the boy's hair. "Not for anything in this world."
