At the hospital, Olivia looked smaller than I remembered. Her skin was pale, her lips were chapped, and her little hand was wrapped around an IV. As soon as she saw me, her eyes filled with tears.
"Grandma... I tried to tell them I was sick," she whispered. "They said I was ruining the trip."
Something inside me broke, cleanly and silently.
A doctor approached, leafing through his medical records. "He's stable now, but he arrived dangerously late. A few more hours..."
He didn't finish the sentence.
I nodded, but I couldn't hear him properly anymore. My gaze shifted to the officer near the door; hospital protocol had already escalated the situation.
"Do we know who left her there?" I asked.
She checked her notes. "A hotel shuttle driver found her alone near the luggage claim area. No adults were present. We are tracing the last known location of her parents."
Parents.
I looked at Olivia, then at him.
My voice came out low, firm, and colder than I expected.
"They are about to have a very different vacation."
The cruise ship was already at sea when I started making calls.
Daniel still didn't answer. Rachel's voicemail was full. But the cruise line answered on the second ring.
At first, they were friendly. Then, confused. Suddenly, they became very attentive when I mentioned the words "abandoned minor" and "hospitalized."
In less than an hour, the port's security footage confirmed what she already suspected: Daniel, Rachel, and Ethan boarded together. Olivia never did.
Instead, they had left her at a hotel bus stop with a backpack and the promise that "someone would come back for her once the registration problems were sorted out."
That "someone" never arrived.
Detective Harris was by my side in the hospital as I watched Olivia sleep.
"Do you want to press charges?" he asked cautiously.
I didn't respond immediately. I looked at her little hand, the IV tape slightly twisted from when she had tried to remove it earlier.
"He could have died," I said quietly.
"That's not an answer," he replied.
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