Chapter 4 - Midnight Terror
At 2:00 AM, my phone rang.
It was Mark’s mother.
I ignored it.
It rang again. And again.
Mark groaned and answered his phone.
"Mom? What's wrong? It's two in the morning."
I listened in the dark as Mark’s sleepy voice turned into pure panic.
"What? Breathing? Where is she?"
He sat up, throwing the blankets off.
"Okay, calm down, we're meeting you at the hospital."
He hung up and looked at me, his face pale in the moonlight.
"It's Diane. Something's wrong. She can't breathe."
"Call an Uber," I said calmly. "I'm not waking Evan."
"Laura, she’s dying! Her throat closed up!"
"I know," I said.
I didn't move.
"What do you mean you know?"
"I told her it was the last piece of meat she'd ever eat."
Mark stared at me as if I was a monster.
"Did you... did you poison her?!"
"Don't be an idiot, Mark. I'm a doctor, not an assassin."
I got out of bed and put on my robe.
"She was bitten by a Lone Star tick. I saw the rash."
"A what?"
"It causes severe anaphylaxis when you consume red meat. It's a delayed reaction. Usually hits in the middle of the night."
Mark was speechless.
"You knew? You knew she was going to have a reaction and you didn't tell her?!"
"I warned her," I said coldly.
"She slapped our four-year-old son, Mark. She laughed at his tears."
I looked him dead in the eye.
"I am not her doctor. I owe her nothing."
Mark rushed out the door.
I went to Evan’s room.
I watched my son sleep peacefully.
May you like
His cheek was still a little red.
I felt absolutely zero guilt.
