Page 100 of Sweet Heart

“And I also got out of it again,” she snaps back, and he startles at that.

“I… Katherina, you are my daughter… It’s my job to protect you.”

“No, Eduardo,” Rosa says.

She walks over to him and wraps her arms around his waist, putting her head against his shoulder.

“You stupid, stupid man. Your only job is to love her unconditionally.”

“I do. That’s why—”

“No. Unconditionally.”

His face crumbles, and he squeezes his eyes closed as he takes in a deep breath. When he opens them again, they are filled with sorrow.

“I’m sorry, hija.”

Cat nods.

“I know, papá, but it is not me you should apologize to.”

He smiles weakly and nods.

“I wasn’t.”

Chapter 36

Cat

“Blunt force trauma to the head and abdomen. Her boyfriend got to her real bad,” Officer Lopez grunts as we push the gurney with the battered woman toward the trauma bay. Her face is covered in bruises, her eye is already swelling shut, and she has an actual boot-print-shaped bruise on her stomach.

“Do we have her history?” I ask as I check her airway.

Her airway is patent, and her breathing unobstructed.

“No, just that this is repeated assault. The whole apartment was covered in her blood,” Lopez answers, grinding her molars before she turns to Carmen. “You’ve gotta help her, Car. I’ve known Susie for years. We can’t let that bastard win.”

“We will take good care of her, Merce. You know that.”

She nods, still looking slightly uncomfortable, but steps back at the doors regardless. I lock eyes with my best friend, curious about why she knows the cop by her first name, but I save my questions for later, when we are alone. Right now, my focus is on the patient.

“Whitman, see if you can pull her chart. Be on the lookout for allergies and any prior conditions. If she has permanent injuries from previous assaults, I want to know.”

“On it,” the nurse confirms while she darts toward the nearest computer.

“Roberts, stats?”

“Pulse one-thirty-two, BP ninety over sixty.”

Fuck. I grab the penlight from my pocket and press Susie’s eyelid back. Her pupil instantly constricts the moment the light hits it, and something in my chest eases up just a little. The other pupil responds equally. Good. At least there are no immediate signs of herniation.

“Let’s see what’s going on. Nurse Rodrigues.”

The ultrasound probe is already in my hand before I finish speaking. Carmen squeezes gel onto Susie’s abdomen, and the room suddenly goes quiet. All eyes are on the grainy black-and-white screen while I slide the device across her stomach. As soon as I reach the liver, I see the black fluid pooling around it. ¡Joder! This woman isn’t out of the woods yet.

“FAST positive. Free fluid in Morrison’s pouch,” I grit out through my teeth. “Roberts?”

“Pressure’s responding to fluids. BP holding at one hundred over seventy.”