Page 100 of Girl in the Water

Pierre took the wheel. A good thing, because Phil’s hands were shaking as hard as hers. They held hands the whole way over, sometimes praying out loud, sometimes praying silently, and sometimes just sitting there and crying.

She didn’t dare be happy.Not yet. Not yet.

What if it wasn’t true?

God, let it be true. Please, dear God.

She barely registered when they arrived at the station. Or when they ran inside. Or when they were shown to the back. Everything passed in a blur.

Then they came to an office with a window to the hallway. A uniformed officer stood in front of the door. On the other side of the window, inside the room, a female officer rocked Lila back and forth as the baby slept.

The world stopped. Snapped into focus. Blood rushed loudly in Carmen’s ears as she gripped Phil’s arm. She was light-headed. She lunged toward the door anyway.

“I’m sorry, ma’am. No one can go in,” the officer said.

She stared at him, barely comprehending the words, even though her Portuguese was excellent. “That’s my baby in there.”

Phil went nose to nose with the guy. “Look here—”

“It’s okay.” Detective Gustavo Santos hurried down the hall from the opposite direction. “Let them in.”

As soon as the door opened, Carmen flew through, then she had to slow down so she wouldn’t jostle Lila too much and wake her, scare her.

She didn’t take a full breath until she had the baby on her shoulder, having to remind herself not to hug her too tightly. She buried her nose in the silky baby hair and breathed in her sweet baby scent, let the tears flow as Phil’s arms went around them.

There wasn’t enough air in the room. She couldn’t breathe. She couldn’t say a word. All she could do was stand there and hold her baby.

“Thank God,” Phil said to the top of her head, his arms steady, his voice shaky.

Lila stirred. Opened her eyes.

Then those little baby blue eyes widened, and she went nuts, squealing and wiggling, smiling, grabbing for Carmen and her daddy. Some people thought babies this age didn’t really know what went on around them, but Lila sure did. She was overjoyed to see her parents.

“We have some paperwork for you to fill out when you’re ready,” Detective Santos said from the doorway. “Take your time. Officer Romero will be outside the door. He’ll let you know when the ambulance gets here. The baby will need to be checked out at the hospital and released by a doctor before you can take her home.”

Carmen just nodded without looking at him, barely registering the words.

The man said, “She wasn’t hurt, as far as we can tell. The people who had her took care of her to make sure she could be—” He stopped. Continued with “adopted.”

But as seamlessly as he’d transitioned, Carmen knew what he’d meant to say.So she could besold.

The utter outrage of the unspoken word burned through her. That her precious baby daughter could have beensold. Had nearly been sold.

And even though Lila had been saved, other mothers’ daughtersweresold. Every day. All over the world. Including right here in Manaus.

Somewhere in Carmen’s brain, the thought registered that she wanted to think about that, harder than ever before. Work harder than ever before to stop these tragedies. But right at that moment, she couldn’t think past having Lila in her arms.

Santos said, “I was about to start the interrogation when I learned that you arrived. I better get back.”

The detective left and pulled the door shut behind him.

Phil sank into the nearest chair and pulled Carmen onto his lap, just hugged them and hugged them.

“We got you, baby,” he repeated over and over.

And Carmen kept saying, “We love you so much.”

She didn’t know how much time passed before Detective Santos returned with a handful of printouts. “The ambulance is here. If you fill out the paperwork now, you won’t have to come back to the station again today. I’ll stop by See-Love-Aid tomorrow, and we’ll talk. Today, just enjoy your baby.”