It was the look they used when they were calculating whether I was worth the effort. My mother pointed through the windshield and noted that there was a TechPoint store right at the next intersection. She suggested they stop for two seconds to grab a portable charger for Chloe.
I felt like the pain had finally caused me to lose my mind. I asked “What?” in a voice that was louder than I had intended. My mother turned around fully and asked me what I had just said.
I told her no and begged her to take me to the hospital instead. Chloe leaned forward and insisted that it would literally only take five minutes. Rick looked at me in the mirror with flat, uncaring eyes.
He told me to stop being dramatic and said that five minutes wouldn’t kill me. That specific sentence would later be repeated in courtrooms and in the whispers of relatives. Rick believed it when he said it, which was the most horrifying part of the entire ordeal.
He turned the SUV into the TechPoint parking lot. The store was bright and modern, filled with displays of technology that promised convenience to everyone else. The parking lot was half-full as snow began to drift down from the sky.