They moved me into a separate private room.
I didn't want to leave Lily.
I kept looking back toward where she had been taken.
But the officers needed to speak with me.
I followed them.
I remember the room being quiet.
There was a table.
There were chairs.
Officer Bennett carried an image with him.
He placed it in front of me.
"Take a look at this."
I leaned forward.
At first, I couldn't understand what I was seeing.
The image showed part of my daughter's body.
There were dozens of small bright shapes inside her abdomen.
They looked like tiny dots.
They were grouped together.
I stared at them.
"What are those?"
Officer Bennett looked at me.
"They're magnets."
I blinked.
"Magnets?"
He nodded.
"There are thirty-six of them inside your daughter."
I looked at the image again.
Thirty-six.
I counted nothing.
I couldn't even imagine how thirty-six magnets could have ended up inside a five-year-old child.
My mind refused to accept it.
"That can't be right."
He didn't change his expression.
The image remained on the table.
I looked at it again.
Thirty-six small objects.
Inside Lily.
I felt my stomach tighten.
Officer Bennett explained that these were powerful magnets.
He told me that when magnets were swallowed, they could attract one another through different sections of the digestive tract.
That attraction could trap tissue between them.
The pressure could cause serious injuries.
It could even tear holes in the intestines.
I listened.
I tried to understand.
But every sentence made the situation worse.
"Are you saying she's been hurt by these things?"
"The medical team is concerned about the damage."
I put my hand over my mouth.
I thought about Lily telling me there were little fish inside her.
She hadn't been describing a dream.
She had been trying to explain the pain caused by something she couldn't understand.
I looked at the image again.
"Who would put those inside a child?"
The officer didn't immediately answer.
He explained that the medical team suspected the magnets had been deliberately swallowed.
I shook my head.
I couldn't accept the possibility.
"That's impossible."
He watched me.
"We don't have anything like that at home."
I said it again.
"We don't have magnets like those."
I wasn't trying to avoid the question.
I genuinely didn't know where they could have come from.
I had spent my time looking after Lily.
I knew the ordinary things in our house.
I knew what she played with.
I knew what she ate.
I knew the things she was allowed to touch.
But I had never seen thirty-six powerful magnets lying around.
I couldn't picture such a thing happening.
Officer Bennett continued asking questions.
Some were about Lily.
Others were about our home.
I answered as honestly as I could.
Then he asked about my work.
"You don't have a job outside the home, do you?"
I looked up.
"No."
I paused.
"I stay home with Lily."
The question seemed simple enough.
I was a stay-at-home mother.
Daniel worked.
I looked after our daughter.
That was how our family had arranged things.
I didn't think it was unusual.
I didn't think it was something I needed to defend.
But the atmosphere changed after I answered.
It was difficult to describe.
The officers had been asking questions before.
Now I felt as though every answer was being measured against me.
I was no longer simply the mother who had brought her injured daughter to the emergency department.
I was the person who had been with her most of the time.
I understood the logic.
I was the primary caregiver.
I was there during the day.
I was responsible for watching her.
But that didn't mean I had caused what happened.
It didn't mean I had watched her swallow thirty-six magnets.
It didn't mean I knew they were inside her.
I looked at the officer.
"Are you saying you think I did this?"
He didn't give me the reassurance I wanted.
He continued with his questions.
I looked down at my hands.
They were still shaking.
I thought about the journey to the hospital.
I thought about the blanket around Lily.
I thought about her voice.
The little fish are biting me.
I wanted to go back to her room.
I wanted to sit beside her and hold her hand.
Instead, I was sitting across from an officer, looking at an image that showed something I could never have imagined.
The questions continued.
I answered what I could.
I didn't have a clever explanation.
I didn't have a name to give them.
I didn't know who could have put those magnets inside my daughter.
I only knew that it hadn't been something I had knowingly allowed.
There was a difference between not knowing something had happened and causing it.
At that moment, I wasn't sure anyone in the room understood that difference.
I wanted Daniel to arrive.
I thought he would help explain our family situation.
I thought he would tell the officers that I loved Lily and had always cared for her.
I thought he would be frightened for his daughter.
That was what I expected from my husband.
I didn't yet know how badly that expectation was about to hurt me.
The X-ray remained on the table.
Thirty-six magnets.
I couldn't stop looking at them.
Each little bright shape represented something my daughter had swallowed.
Each one represented a danger I hadn't seen.
And the thought that someone might have deliberately put them inside her made me feel physically ill.
I wanted answers.
I wanted the person responsible to be found.
Most of all, I wanted Lily to survive.
Nothing else mattered.
Not the questions.
Not the embarrassment.
Not what the officers thought of me.
I would have answered every question they had if it meant my daughter could be safe.
Then I heard that Daniel had arrived.
For one brief moment, I felt relieved.
My husband was there.
I thought I wouldn't have to face everything alone anymore.
Click here to continue reading: PART 4: I Thought My Husband Would Hold Me When He Arrived, but His First Words Made Me Realize I Was Facing Something Worse
The Night My Five-Year-Old Daughter Walked Into My Bedroom With a Pain She Could Not Explain
Part 3 of 20
