Page 6 of The Sister's Curse

His wife shoved him, hard. “Fuck that stupid church and its stupid rules! Our son is going to die if we don’t get him help.”

I stepped forward. “You can’t obstruct an emergency vehicle.”

Sumner growled, “I get to make the medical decisions for my son, and I don’t believe in Western medicine to—”

“He’s my son,” the woman hissed. “He’s my son and I’m giving permission for him to be given medical care. Get out of the way.”

I grabbed the man’s elbow. I was ready to arrest him if need be. “Sir, you have to let the ambulance pass.”

Sumner shook my hand off and went to start up the car.

The mother scrambled into the back of the ambulance, breaking the heel of her shoe. She leaned over Mason, tearfully stroking his hand as the paramedics finished intubating him.

This display of emotion over a child was foreign to me. I wrapped my arms around myself. My father had loved me, in his way, but he was a monster. My mother…She never had.

My gaze fell on the child’s foot, illuminated by the harsh ambulance lights. Scratches curled around his ankle, terminating at the sole of the foot. The blood there was red, fresh. If I hadn’t felt something pulling on him in the water, I would’ve wondered if the boy had cut himself running into the pond.

I recalled the resistance I’d felt as I’d tried to haul him out of the pond. What had held him down? What—

The doors slammed shut, and the ambulance, with full lights and sirens, howled up the driveway to the road.

The father lunged out of his SUV. “What the hell happened?”

I took a deep breath. “Mason was found in the pond, and he wasn’t breathing. They managed to get his breathing going, but he needs the hospital. You should be there with them.”

“How in the hell did this happen? Where’s Leah?”

I lifted my hands in a calming gesture. “Leah is safe.”

From the corner of my eye, I saw Monica escorting Leah inside the house. Sumner saw her, too, and barreled toward her.

“You were supposed to watch him!”

I got between Sumner and the babysitter, putting my hands on his chest. “Whoa. Take a deep breath, now.”

He flung my hands aside and tried to shove past me. “I want to know what the hell she was doing if she wasn’t watching my kid!”

I grabbed his wrist. “Mr.Sumner, I cannot allow you to talk with her right now.”

That didn’t stop him. He lurched forward, and I turned his arm behind his back. I hated having to do it; he was out of his mind with grief. Deputies converged and pushed him back.

Sumner bellowed: “Get out of here, all of you! This is my house. I pay for it and I’m in charge here.”

“Mr.Sumner, I’m afraid that this is an active crime scene—”

He snarled at me, “Get the fuck out.”

“That’s not going to happen,” I told him. “You need to calm down and go to the hospital to be with your son.”

He struggled against me, then stopped.

“All right?” I said.

I released him and he shrugged away, casting off my hands in a sullen fit. He stomped off to his car, cranked the engine, and disappeared down the driveway.

I exhaled, relieved that he was gone.

I felt something leaning against my thigh. Gibby gazed up at me and whined. I absently rubbed his ears. In that moment, I felt leaden and cold, covered in algae.