I thought I was coming home for a happy birthday surprise. But what I found in the hallway stopped me cold. I knew something wasn’t right.

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?”