Page 36 of Detective Daddy Next Door

"What's up, Milley?"

"Ellie's sick, I think. I need to take her to the hospital. I have to go now."

"Alright. I'll call you later," he shouts after me as I rush out of the door.

I clutch my car keys in my hand and hurry over to where I'm parked.

I arrive home to see Ellie writhing in pain.

"You could have called an ambulance."

"I did. But it’s been ten minutes."

"Ellie," I say as I scoop her up from the bed.

I turn to Garcelle as I rush out. "What the fuck did she eat?"

"I…I don't know. I ate the same food she took to school for lunch. I don't know if she ate something else at school."

Garcelle gets the door to the backseat when we’re outside. I put Ellie in, and Garcelle gets in with her while I get in the driver's seat. I keep looking back to see if she's gotten worse.

"Don't let her go to sleep, please. Keep her talking."

When we get to the hospital, she's rushed into the emergency department and they start to run tests. I'm not scared often, but today I am. I am scared of losing my little girl. I walk up and down the hospital halls, afraid that sitting would make things worse. I roam around and fight the urge to burst into the room she's in.

After an hour, a doctor approaches me. "We need to operate on your daughter. It's urgent."

"Wait, what? Why?"

"She’s got appendicitis. If we don’t operate on her now it could be deadly for her."

I nod. "Sure. What do I need to do?"

"You need to sign some papers. Please, follow me."

After I sign the papers, I watch them wheel Ellie toward the operating room. I go toward the stretcher and follow them to the door, running my fingers through her blonde hair.

"You'll be okay, baby," I say to her. Her eyes are closed, and I doubt she can hear me.

But I don't believe what I just said. I want to believe it, but I'm terrified she won't be okay. I don’t know what's going to happen. My heart is thumping fast, and my head is spinning. I walk slowly to the chair beside Garcelle, and I sit, wringing my hands, praying for a miracle. I stand up, then sit again when my legs threaten to buckle beneath me. I don't know what I’d do if I lost her. I don’t even want to think about it. The thought alone is enough to drive me crazy.

"She'll be fine, Mr. Miler," Garcelle says, her kind face smiling at me when I turn to look at her.

"I hope so. I really hope so."

Ten minutes later, my phone rings. I ignore it. But it doesn't stop ringing. I pull it out of my pocket. It's Jon.

"Hey, how's the kid doing?"

I get off the chair and walk toward the opposite end of the waiting area. "She's in surgery."

"Oh, it's that bad? Sorry about that, man."

"Yeah, thanks. I'll talk to you later."

He stops me before I can drop the call. "Umm…I know this is a really bad time. But you know the files from Maestro firm that we sent to be checked through? They're corrupted, so we'll need your source to copy them again."

I sigh and rub my fingers on my temple. "How did they get corrupted?"

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