PART 2
For a few seconds, nobody moved.
Not my mother.
Not my brother.
Not even me.
The word hung in the air.
Doctor.
My mother’s expression changed first.
It was subtle.
A tiny tightening around her eyes.
A small movement of her mouth.
Like her brain was trying to reject something it had already understood.
My brother looked from the emergency department doors to me.
Then back again.
“Doctor?”
He repeated it quietly.
As if saying it a second time would somehow make it less real.
The chief of emergency medicine looked confused.
“Yes. Dr. Piper Bennett.”
He glanced at my family.
“Is there a problem?”
Nobody answered.
Because for the first time in years, they didn’t know what to say.
I followed the doctor through the doors.
Behind me, I heard my brother whisper:
“She’s a doctor?”
My footsteps didn’t stop.
Not because I wanted revenge.
