I came home early to surprise my daughter on her 16th birthday. Then I noticed something unexpected in the hallway. Everything changed in that moment.

A pulse.

Weak.

Uneven.

But there.

“She’s alive,” I said.

The dispatcher answered immediately. “Sir, paramedics are less than four minutes away.”

Four minutes.

I had spent fifteen years learning how much could happen in four minutes.

“Stay with me, Violet.”

Her eyelids fluttered.

“Dad?”