I was chopping vegetables when my four-year-old daughter

antiseptic and plastic tubing.

Emma lies under a thin blanket with a small monitor clipped to her finger. The soft beep of her pulse fills the silence between us.

Andrew stands near the foot of the bed.

He looks destroyed.

I want to comfort him, but the anger in me is still alive. It breathes. It watches him.

He whispers, “I didn’t know.”

“I know.”

“I should continue reading …