The answer caught in his throat before he could stop it.
“…Years,” he admitted finally. “After the last doctor said there was nothing else they could do, I stopped taking her. I didn’t want to keep giving her hope that would just get taken away again.”
He swallowed hard.
“I didn’t want to watch her break.”
Emma nodded slightly, as if she understood more than she was saying.
Then she turned her attention fully to Lily.
“Lily,” she said softly, “when the nurses give you a bath… do they use warm water?”
Lily nodded.
“And when they touch your legs… are they gentle?”
Another small nod.
Emma glanced up at Ethan. “That’s the problem.”
Ethan frowned. “What are you talking about?”
“Too much protection,” Emma said. “Too much softness. Her body stopped expecting anything else. Her nerves… they stopped reacting.”
“That’s not how paralysis works,” Ethan shot back, though his voice had already lost some of its certainty.
Emma didn’t respond to that.
Instead, she picked up the hose again and aimed it—not at Lily’s head this time—but at her legs, still hidden beneath the blanket.
“Lily,” she said gently, “I want you to focus. Not on what you think you should feel… just on what you actually feel. Okay?”