“I am not playing games, Steven. We’ve been traveling all day,” Catherine snapped. “Where is my daughter?”
“She is in Decatur, recovering from a near-fatal febrile seizure,” I said, my voice dead and flat.
Julian’s sunburned face lost all its color. “A seizure? What… what are you talking about? She just felt a little warm when we left.”
I picked up the digital thermometer from the coffee table and tossed it. It landed in Julian’s lap. “You left a thermometer on the floor that read 103.5 degrees. You left an eight-year-old child burning alive in a house with no air conditioning.”
I picked up the stack of papers and slammed them down on the glass table.
“Here is the emergency room report,” I continued, pointing to the documents. “Severe dehydration. Core temperature of 104.2. The attending physician filed a felony child endangerment report. And here is your $20,000 itinerary for the Gilded Seas.”
Catherine stepped forward, her panic finally piercing through her arrogance. “She was fine! We left medicine! You’re twisting this to make us look bad!”
“You spent twenty thousand dollars to buy a smile for one child,” I said, leaning in so close I could smell the coconut sunscreen on her skin, “but you couldn’t spare twenty dollars and a shred of human decency to save the life of the other. You aren’t just playing favorites, Catherine. You are attempted murderers.”
Julian buried his face in his hands, letting out a ragged, pathetic sob. “Dad, please. We didn’t know. We thought she was faking it to ruin Leo’s trip. She always needs so much attention.”
“She needed a mother and a father,” I retorted, disgusted by his cowardice. “And since she doesn’t have those, she has me.”
I slid the thickest document across the glass. “This is an emergency custody order granting me full temporary placement of Maya, effective immediately. Do not contact my house. Do not attempt to visit her. If you come within five hundred feet of my property, I will have you arrested for violating a court order.”
“You can’t take my child!” Catherine shrieked, lunging for the papers.
“You abandoned her the moment you walked out that door,” I said, turning my back on them. “I am just making it legally binding.”