And the second I saw what the scanner revealed, my knees almost failed... 😱💔
Continued first comment 👇👇!!️
The image on the screen meant nothing to me at first.
Grey shadows. White lines. Ways I couldn't understand.
The doctor then pointed to a dark area near Lily's abdomen.
“He has internal bleeding,” he said quietly. “It’s not massive yet, but it’s enough for us to have to treat it immediately.”
My mouth dried up.
“What caused it?”
The doctor did not respond immediately.
Instead, he looked at Lily.
“Was there an accident this weekend?”
Lily looked at the ground.
Her fingers tightened around mine.
“Lily?” I whispered.
Nothing.
The doctor pulled up a chair and lowered his voice.
“I need you to be honest with me. You fell down? Did someone hit you? Did someone push you?”
The second he said the word “pushed,” Lily collapsed.
His whole body started to shake.
“Mom...” he whispered.
I felt cold all over my body.
“What happened?”
He covered his face with both hands.
“I didn’t want this to happen.”
I got closer.
“You did nothing. Just tell me.”
He denied his head desperately.
“No. You don’t understand.”
The doctor looked at me and then looked at Lily again.
“Did Marcus push you?”
Lily looked up so quickly that I knew the answer before she spoke.
The tears were running down his face.
“Please don’t call the police.”
My heart seemed to stop.
“Lily...”
“Please, Mom.”
He grabbed me from the wrist.
“I didn’t want to hurt myself.”
I could barely breathe.
“What did he do?”
For several seconds, he said nothing.
Then the truth came out in choppy fragments.
On Saturday night, she and Marcus had argued.
He had been drinking.
Not enough to fall, Lily said, but enough to make her voice stronger than normal and have less patience.
She wanted to call me to ask me to let her go home.
Marcus told him it wasn't dramatic.
Lily went upstairs to pack her bag anyway.
He followed her.
“I kept saying that I was disrespecting him,” he whispered. “I told him he wasn’t my father.”
My stomach turned.
“And then?”
Lily looked at the door.
“I tried to pass by him.”
His voice broke.
“He grabbed my arm.”
