“I’m Ethan Carter. I was supposed to meet their mother tonight. They came to find me.”
An older officer stepped in.
“Let them go. We’ll handle statements at the hospital. Secure the scene.”
The girls sat pressed against Ethan in the back of the patrol car, holding onto him like he was a human seatbelt. Through the windshield, they watched the ambulance disappear into the night.
“Is she going to die?” whispered the girl with blood on her collar.
Ethan wanted to promise everything.
But he knew better.
“The doctors are going to do everything they can,” he said quietly. “She’s breathing. That matters.”
At the hospital, chaos took over. Natalie was rushed into surgery. The twins—Anna and Sophie—were taken to a quiet room with a social worker.
Ethan tried to give them space.
They refused to let go of his hand.
“Don’t leave us,” Sophie begged.
The social worker, Patricia, looked at him carefully.
“Is there family?”
“I don’t know. I’ve known them for twenty minutes.”
Patricia blinked.
“Then for now… you’re all they have. Can you stay?”
Ethan looked at the girls—their trembling lips, their exhausted eyes.
“Yes,” he said. “I’ll stay.”
At that moment, his phone buzzed.
Marianne.