Umbrella

13|Pulse

Everything stopped.

The sirens from the ambulance consumed the house. Michael's ears were deaf and didn't even process the army of people running in to take his little girl.

Lauren had a pulse but was not responding to anything. Not even the needles that were being poked into her skin.

"Sir?" One of the paramedics called for the fourth time.
"Yes?" Michael asked still dazed.
"I need you to fill out all her information here" The paramedic said handing him a tablet filled with questions and blanks.

Michael did not once look down at the tablet and instead focused on his daughter being strapped into a granny.

"Sir the faster you fill everything out, the faster we can find out what might of happened to her" The same man said.

Michael looked down at the screen below him and with a trembling finger, he began to type all of Lauren's information. When he finished, he returned the tablet back to the paramedic and rushed inside the ambulance.

"Is she going to be ok?" Michael asked holding Lauren's pale hand.
"From the looks of it, she's a pretty healthy kid. It was probably nothing serious" The medic reassured him while looking at Lauren's medical record.

Michael nodded and looked down.

"Due to protocol, you cannot enter the room with her once we enter the hospital. Unless your name is Marissa Costello, you're not a legal guardian" Another paramedic said.
"I received full custody of her recently. We haven't changed her emergency contact yet" Michael told him.
"Sorry, it's not in our records"

--

"Are you crazy!?" Marissa screamed. "How does it make sense to cure a high fever with HOT water Michael?!" She continued.
"I'm new to this whole parenting thing, calm down please." He said softly.
"This has nothing to do with parenting, it's common sense!" Marissa continued.
"Yelling at me isn't going to solve anything" Michael reminded her.
"How could you be so careless?" She whispered.

They both stopped screaming at each other and instead looked at their daughter lying in the hospital bed without a sound.

Her fever was still extremely high but it was going down little by little with time. Lauren had yet to open her eyes since she fainted and her pulse was slower than normal.

"When she wakes up, I'm taking her home. You can't raise a child" Marissa said.

She got up and walked towards Lauren. Her whole face was filled with tiny droplets of sweat.

"Hell no. My daughter is not living with that bastard" Michael told her.
"He'd never hurt her" She reassured him.
"Me neither"
"Yet she's in this position because of you"

Michael sighed.

"You can't expect me to be perfect overnight Marissa" He said angrily.
"I'm not expecting you to be perfect, I'm expecting you to not put her life in danger"

He nodded.

The room fell silent for a while before Michael spoke again.

"Why did you keep her from me?" He asked.

Marissa softly removed all the hair stuck on her daughter's face before asking a question herself.

"How much did you get paid for the tapes?" She asked.
"I asked you a question first" Michael said as calmly as possible.
"You've been asking too many questions, its my turn. How much did you get paid?" She repeated.
"It was $9,000 per tape" He said full of guilt.

Marissa nodded.

"You're not telling me the real truth Michael. I know when you lie to me" She said turning to face him.

Michael looked down and twiddled his thumbs before sighing. He hated how well Marissa knew him.

"Before I start, I want you to know that in no way,shape, or form were my actions intentional in regards to hurting you. Please keep that in mind."

Marissa sighed impatiently.

"Spill it"